
Class 
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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



PLAIN 

FBACTIOAL 

SERMONS 



BY 

Rt. Rev. Mgr. JOHN A. SHEPPARD, V.G. 



SECOND EDITION 



NEW YORK 

CHRISTIAN PRESS ASSOCIATION 

PUBLISHING COMPANY 

26 BARCLAY STREET 
I904 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 

Two Copies Received 

MAY 7 1904 

Ceoyrteht Entry 

H^. W-i'«o if 
CLASS Ol XXO. No. 

2T JT f $ .L 
COPY B 



Plain Practical Sermons. 






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* JOHN JOSEPH O'CONNOR, D.D., 

Bishop of Newark. 



Copyright, 1904. 



DEDICATION. 



TO THE STUDENTS OP SETON HALL SEMINARY, 
TO THE PRIESTS IN THE MINISTRY WHO 
HAVE ISSUED FROM THAT SHRINE 

THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. 



Passaic, New Jersey, 
1892. 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



A book of good, instructive sermons is useful to both lay- 
man and priest. To the former it will be an ever-ready 
guide and teacher in the spiritual life, upon which so much 
depends — the eternal happiness of his immortal soul. He 
can take it up at any time, in the leisure hours of the even- 
ing, when resting from the day's hard labor and fatigue, 
or of a Sunday afternoon, when perchance he will read it 
aloud before all the members of the family, or when con- 
valescing from a long and severe sickness, and he will always 
derive from its perusal instruction and edification that will 
be of incalculable advantage to his soul. 

To the priest a book of short, clear, logical and practical 
sermons, such as this written by the Rev. Father Sheppard, 
will always be useful and pleasant reading. On occasions 
it may even suggest to him for his own sermons, important 
points that might not have occurred to him, or that he 
would not have seen so clearly and distinctly, as they have 
been developed by Father Sheppard. There is, conse- 
quently, good reason for believing that the little work will 
do some good in the world, and that the time the reverend 
Author spent in preparing it for publication, has been very 
usefully employed. 

* W. M. WIGGER, 

Bishop of Newark. 

Seton Hall College, 
Oct. 1st, 1892. 



RT. REV. MGR. JOHN A. SHEPPARD,V. G. 

My dear Monsignor, 

Allow me to thank you for the advance sheets of the new edition 
of your book of sermons. Very cordially I recommend it to the 
Rev. Clergy. Practical sermons are of great value as aids in the 
careful preparation for preaching the word of God. I trust that 
this new edition of your excellent sermons may have a wide circu- 
lation. 

Very sincerely yours in Christ, 

* JOHN J. O'CONNOR, 

Bishop of Newark. 
Bishops' House, 

South Orange, N.J., 
Jan. 1st, 1904. 



PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 



The first edition of these Sermons has long since been 
exhausted and the book has been practically out of print 
for a number of years. The many demands from various 
sources for a second edition, have induced the Author to re- 
publish the work from a new set of plates. It is a matter 
of consolation to know that it has been an aid to the reverend 
Clergy in the preaching of God's word, and we hope that 
this new edition, in a somewhat improved dress, may still 
further assist them in the arduous work of the pulpit. 

THE AUTHOR. 



St. Michael's Rectory, 

Jersey City, New Jersey, 

Oct. 1st, 1903. 



CONTENTS. 



SERMON PAGE 

I. The Necessity of Revealed Religion 7 

II. Christianity, the Revealed Religion 17 

III. The Church of God 29 

IV. The Sanctity of the Church 40 

V. The Catholicity of the Church 51 

VI. The Church Apostolic 64 

VII. Christmas Day 77 

VIII. The Feast of the Most Holy Name 83 

IX. The Holy Name 94 

X. The Incredulity of St. Thomas , 103 

XI. Christ the True Model of the Christian 113 

XII. The Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary 123 

XIII. Feast of the Holy Angels 133 

XIV. Pentecost 144 

XV. Passion Sunday. 153 

XVI. Quadragesima 164 

XVII. The Holy Name 175 

XVIII. Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul 186 

XIX. Commemoration of all Souls 197 

XX. The Blessed Virgin 206 

XXI. Sodality of the Children of Mary 217 

XXII. Prayer 228 

XXIII. Mary, our Life, our Sweetness and our Hope 238 

XXIV. Prayer 246 

XXV, The Precepts of the Church 258 

XXVI. Sins opposed to Faith 268 

5 



CONTENTS. 



SERMON frAGfi 

XXVII. The Sacrament of Penance 277 

XXVIII. Baptism 287 

XXIX. The Fourth Commandment 297 

XXX. Matrimony , 307 

XXXI. The Duties of Parents 318 

XXXII. Purgatory 328 

XXXIII. The Second Article of the Creed 339 

XXXIV. The Dignity of a Christian 349 

XXXV. TheLoveof God 360 

XXXVI. The two Masters 369 

XXXVII. No Compromise with the World 379 

XXXVIII. True and False Prophets 391 

XXXIX. Death 401 

XL. Third Sunday of Advent 413 

XLI. The Last Judgment 424 

XLII. OnSin 435 

XLIII. Conditions for Holy Communion 444 

XLI V. The Passions 455 



I. SERMON. 
THE NECESSITY OF EEVEALED RELIGION. 



" He shall give testimony of me, 

And you shall give testimony.' 1 ' 9 

John xv, 26. 



We would propose for your consideration three of the 
most important questions that can engage the attention of 
man. Important, for upon them depends his whole life 
upon earth ; important, for if we but solve them we shall 
be able to decide for ourselves, whether the past years of 
our lives have been spent as they should be, and in what 
manner the future is to be cared for; important, for in 
their solution we shall have the key of the solution of life 
itself and all its hidden mysteries. 

The first of these questions is : whether or not there be a 
Revealed Religion ? This is the question which we shall 
here consider. The other two are: whether or not Chris- 
tianity be that Revealed Religion ; and where we shall find 
true Christianity? Who are its guardians? To whom 
has it been committed ? 

Is there then a Revealed Religion ? In other words, has 
man ever had any communication with a world other than 
this upon which he lives, acts and dies. Has that world 
which is styled the supernatural any real existence, or have 
we on any occasion ever been brought into contact with it ? 
Have we ever heard from competent and reliable authority 
of its existence and of its truths ? Man is born into the 



1. SERMON. 

world a poor helpless babe, ignorant of all that surrounds 
him; years of his life go by in infancy and in ignorance 
of his inevitable end; slowly and by degrees a light illu- 
mines him and he begins to discern objects distinct and 
different from himself; another step and he recognizes 
persons like himself; still another advance and he beholds 
a world of beings; nay more, he looks above him in the 
heavens, and his youthful imagination is lost in its wan- 
derings through the universe. It cannot be circumscribed, 
and on its steady advance immensity stretches out before 
his gaze ; he is lost in astonishment, and as his mind ma- 
tures he begins to analyze and scan more closely the objects 
that surround him. He looks about the world and he be- 
holds an indescribable beauty, an unbroken harmony, and 
an order that admits of no exception. 

In vain have poets by the magic of their verse endeav- 
ored to give an idea of its beauty ; they may sing of the 
mighty ocean, tell of heaven's arched vault, speak of its 
majestic mountain heights, and yet their theme is inex- 
haustible. The pen has used its power in vain ; but the 
theme unchangeable will be taken up by nations yet 
unborn ! The painter too, has endeavored to fix its beauty 
upon his canvas; his tints are borrowed from nature, his 
imagination is fed by that which surrounds him ; but find- 
ing it incomparable, the brush falls from his hand after 
having caught but a poor shadow of its beauty. To con- 
firm the order and harmony of the Universe, we have but to 
tell you to watch the rising and setting of the sun; the 
recurrence of the seasons, the little seed budding into life, 
the trees laden with their fruit, the leaves as they fall and 
die ; the continual yet similar change that goes on in the 
succession of life unto death, and death to life again. We 
have but to mention these things and you recognize an 
order that is permanent and continuous. Seeing all this, 
are we not constrained to ask whence comes this beauty ? 
Who is the author of this harmony and order ? 

In passing through a dark forest which appears to defy 

8 



THE NECESSITY OF REVEALED RELIGION. 

our entering, were we to espy a house nicely laid out, sur- 
rounded by all the necessaries of life and happiness, would 
we not immediately conclude that man must have made 
his home there ; that though no one be visible about it yet 
some one must have built it, must even now dwell there, 
since it is in such good order. Would we ever think of 
ascribing the origin of that house to chance, or would we 
dare to assert that this lifeless mass of timber thrown into 
the shape and form of a house had always been there ? 
Why, we would be laughed at ; we would be called insane ; 
and yet, my friends, will you credit it, there have been 
men who, looking at this vast Universe, with all its variety 
of beauty and order, have said that it was the work of 
chance; that it had no author — no intelligent author — 
though showing effects which could be produced by no 
other than an intelligent cause. This theory had its 
supporters, though shocking to common sense and the 
reason of mankind. 

It was finally abandoned, and then this lifeless mass 
was considered to have been eternal ; it never had a be- 
ginning and never would have an end. But then came 
the difficulty of accounting for the order that was visible 
throughout it. This was ascribed to nature, to the 
laws of nature. It was forgotten that there never were 
laws without a legislature. Yes, this world must have 
had some beginning, some one must have framed its laws ; 
some one who still preserves it, and prevents it from fall- 
ing into its original nothingness. That being we recognize 
as God, the Creator. Here, then, is the first revelation of 
a world beyond and above us. It is the Revelation of a 
Superior Being to the creature, by means of the world that 
surrounds him. " The invisible things of Him, from the 
creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by 
the things which are made. " 

Again, consider the kinds of life that are seen on the 
earth, and we are struck with wonder at the order which 
reigns therein. A three-fold kingdom breaks upon our 

9 



I. SERMON . 

view. We see life in its lowest and highest forms. We 
look at the vegetable kingdom ; there we see it in its lowest 
grade ; we see the plant grow up, nourished by the soil, 
and then die. We advance a step and enter the animal 
kingdom. There we behold the animal possessing the life 
of the plant, nourished as it is, but having in addition the 
senses and the power of locomotion. Another step and we 
enter the rational kingdom, there we see man requiring 
nourishment as the plant does, endowed like the animal 
with the senses and locomotion, but above these gifted 
with the power of reason ; an intelligent being. Contem- 
plating such a scene, are we not obliged and forced to con- 
fess the existence of some wise being who ordains all 
things well ? The world then, is not the work of chance. 
We did not come of ourselves into the world. We rec- 
ognize the fact that God made and favored the earth 
with all that is upon it. 

Why then did he make it ? Why did he make us ? 

If we examine our own consciousness we find the 
existence of two great faculties: the intelligence and the 
will. The characteristic of man's intelligence is to seek 
for the truth. This has been and is the history of the 
human mind, which seeks and strives for knowledge ; day 
and night is spent in pursuit of it. The first days of 
youth and the last days of old age are laid on the altar of 
science. " Knowledge ! " cries the child from the school 
bench ; " Knowledge ! " cries the scientist in his dis- 
coveries ; " Knowledge ! " cries the man of letters 
closeted in his study ; " Knowledge ! " cries the phil- 
osopher in his speculations. In a word, it is the continual 
cry, and has been the continual cry of society for six 
thousand years. And yet how little has it prospered. 
What do we learn from this ? Does it not show that 
man's intelligence does not attain complete fruition in this 
life ? Was there ever a learned man who was not ignorant 
on some point or another, and who did not wish to know 
more. Here is the reason : the director of his intellect 

10 



THE NECESSITY OF REVEALED RELIGION. 

is the source and fountain of all knowledge, God himself ; 
and so long as man is estranged from that fountain he will 
always thirst. 

Again, what a noble faculty is the will of man. The 
intelligence comprehends, the will forces it to seek for 
itself. Now one thing, now another is presented to the 
understanding ; the will knowing what is good, knowing 
what is proper for itself, either chooses or rejects the 
objects that are presented to it ; but as the intelligence has 
not found that which could fill or supply its capacity for 
knowledge, it consequently could not be moved by the will. 
We find this faculty of man also doomed to disappointment 
in this world. Examine this truth more closely. We 
have all of us more or less of those things which satisfy us, 
but are we happy? Is there nothing more which we 
desire? Some of you possess happy homes, live among 
friends who are always striving to please you, who are 
pained if you suffer and rejoice if you are glad; but yet, 
are you happy? Enter the halls of the great ones of 
earth, pass through their homes and note their actions. 
Surely you will say : if happiness is at all to be found, 
these people must possess it. They seem to have all that 
the will of man could desire, their wants are supplied by 
a mere word, a mere command, and what ever they call 
for is near them ; but yet, are they happy ? Is there 
nothing more, and in fact do they desire nothing more ? 
Yes ; fill up and supply their wants, give them all that 
they ask for, and still a time will come when they shall 
confess with Solomon the wisest of men : " Vanity of 
vanities, and all is vanity." We grasp the entire world, 
but we are not satisfied. The capacity of our desires 
seem to increase the more we possess; hence our intelli- 
gence and our will force us to confess that there is some- 
thing beyond and outside of this world which our under- 
standing desires, and which our will would possess. 
Thus it is that we are led to recognize again the existence 
of a God, and at the same time forced to the conclusion 

11 



I. SERMON. 

that he is henceforth to be the aim of our intelligence 
and will ; that we are created and made to know him with 
our intelligence, and to love him with our will. 

There is then a God, and man is made for him. How 
then, shall this creature attain the end for which he is 
created? How come into the possession of God? He 
is his creature, his servant, made to live with him here- 
after. Is there no means by which he will be enabled 
to get to him? Must not God of necessity, if He in- 
tended man for himself give him the means whereby he 
may come to him ? But say you, there are other means 
besides Revelation. It is not at all necessary that he 
should make a revelation of his will for that purpose. 
Strange reasoning! The master on this earth may pre- 
scribe the work that is to be done by his servants, but 
God, the Master of us all, is denied that right because 
it has been foolishly asserted that it would be impossible 
for him to exercise it. 

Now when we examine the other means of arriving 
at a knowledge of God's holy will in regard to us it 
seems to me that they might be reduced to two. Either 
the multitude must follow the instructions of the wise, 
or make use of their own reason, and thus draw their 
own conclusions. Have there then been in the past, and 
are there in the present, teachers capable of pointing 
out to us the mode of serving God without a Revelation 
from Him. He that would so assert has but poorly read 
the history of the human mind. Look into the past 
and examine the first teachers the world had. Examine 
the Priests of the Egyptians, the Magi of the Persians; 
they were great men, learned men; their lives were 
spent in study, and academy after academy and school 
after school were raised by those naturally gifted teach- 
ers. Yet, were they able to establish a perfect rela- 
tion between God and his creatures? Were they able 
to establish a mode of worship from which justice and 
.morality would flow; could they establish a Religion? 

12 



THE NECESSITY OF REVEALED RELIGION. 

They tried to teach, but they taught falsely, for their 
doctrines lacked unity and were taught without author- 
ity. The schools that were founded, the academies that 
were raised, took up sides against one another. The 
master could not oblige the pupil to receive his teaching, 
for all that was known was but a matter of opinion. To- 
day we find Socrates condemning the scepticism preva- 
lent, while on the morrow we see it approved by the fol- 
lowers of Phyrro. 

Epicurus tells the world to feast and make merry, 
for we are but mortals that die, never to be again thought 
of; Zeno follows with his ideas of fatalism, telling man- 
kind that no matter what they do, they act by virtue of 
necessity; thus crushing and suppressing morality. No 
unity of thought or doctrine exists. Upon the vital 
question of the existence and nature of God, they are 
divided. Thus we see a multitude of Gods worshipped; 
nay, even the very beasts of the field and plants of the soil 
are looked upon as Deities. You remember the instance 
related in the Acts of the Apostles: where Paul was 
grieved by the number of idols he had seen in the city 
of Athens, an idol for every imaginary Deity; nay, he 
tells us that they even had one to the Unknown God. 
Could ignorance be more ridiculous ! But they went 
further than this, for they even deified their passions, 
and raised altars to their lusts. They were not only 
wrong in their teaching but they had no authority to 
teach. They taught what they thought; which was but 
an individual opinion, and so long as they could not 
prove that their doctrines were truths, were certainties, 
they might be received or rejected at will. Rea- 
son pitted against reason was powerless to convince; and 
hence the people, seeing school arrayed against school, 
and man against man, were but little affected. This 
may seem strange, you may tell me that their doctrines 
were taken up and followed and defended by many; 
you may show me that the idolatry which they practised 

13 



I. SERMON. 

was but an outgrowth of their teachings; my reply will 
be, that this did not come from doctrines taught, or from 
the fact that people believed that they should receive 
these teachings; but it rather came from the fact that 
they were in keeping with the passions and feelings of 
men. Hence it was that in many cases they received 
them, not as acknowledging a right in the teacher to 
preach, but because he gave way to the bent of their in- 
clinations. Had he done the contrary they might have 
listened to him, but only to forget what he had said to 
them. More than this, another essential element was 
wanting; their doctrine was without sanction, and in 
consequence people might adopt and follow them, or re- 
ject and not heed them. 

You will better understand the necessity of sanction 
for a doctrine or law, by an example. You are aware 
for instance, that if you commit a breach of the laws 
of the state or of the general government, you are liable 
to be punished in some way or another. If there were 
no such punishment for the offence, the law would be use- 
less. What would the robber fear, if he knew that he 
might plunder with safety? The murderer, if he 
knew his crime would go unpunished? They fear and 
dread the punishment that is to follow. Hence the re- 
spect for the law. 

Now as to doctrine. You doubtless understand what 
the church means by a Doctrine or Dogma of Faith. It 
is a truth that admits of no denial; moreover, it is a 
truth that must be received and believed, either explic- 
itly or implicitly, by the faithful. The right of the 
Church to exact that belief we shall see in a future 
instruction. What is it then that makes men receive 
this truth? Certainly they act from conviction, but be- 
yond this, what makes them receive the truth. It is 
the sanction which the truth possesses. Men know that 
to deny that truth would be to separate themselves from 
the Church of God, and to separate from the Church of 

14 



THE NECESSITY OF REVEALED RELIGION. 

God would be to expose them to the loss of their souls 
for all eternity. The three essentials of doctrine then, 
were wanting: unity, authority and sanction. They 
were wanting, and hence it was impossible for priests, 
magi or philosophers to teach the truth. But is there not 
in man, placed there by the hand of God Himself, a 
power which can lead him to his Creator? Is there not 
a power in man that has accomplished great results? 
Yes! We recognize in man a wonderful, a magic 
power; we recognize in man a power that has enchained 
the lightnings of heaven ; which has, as it were, destroyed 
and annihilated space; which has discovered the exist- 
ence of a God, treated most learnedly of his nature and 
of his attributes, told us of the immortality of the human 
soul, taught us if you will that God should be adored and 
loved by all His creatures ; in a word, we recognize in man 
a power which has done all but create. Yet, sad to say, 
we have to record together with this history of reason's 
successes, the story of its blunders. What absurdities 
and follies have not been foisted on the human race in 
the name of reason. Reason! Why, it is a power that 
has built up and thrown down. Reason! Why, there 
is no truth that it has not questioned, nay, even denied; 
it has even said: there is no God! It stood up and de- 
nied facts which were proven by the very senses, it main- 
tained that they were not realities; it looked out into 
the material world which surrounds us, up into the heav- 
ens filled as it is with other worlds, and yet dared to as- 
sert that this world that we see and touch and that those 
planets we gaze upon; that all this vast system is en- 
dowed with but an ideal existence, that there is no reality 
in it. Reason! In our day it is a power which seems 
to have gone mad; it fears not to tell us, men as we are, 
possessing the power of understanding; it fears not to 
tell us of a disgraceful ancestry; that we are descended 
from the wild beasts of the field ! With such errors, with 
such extravagances, with such powers, swayed as he is at 

15 



I. SERMON. 

times by pride, passion, prejudice and interest; will man 
attempt to establish a relation between creature and 
creature, and between creature and God? A ra- 
tional religion, a religion of reason ! Why, what does it 
mean? It means a divided religion; a religion which 
man may establish to-day and do away with to-morrow. 
It means a religion subservient to the passion, prejudice, 
or interest of the individual; it means a convenient re- 
ligion suited to the taste of him who practices it; a reli- 
gion that will demand no sacrifice, command no charity. 
But look back to the Revolution in France, not a century 
ago, and there you will behold a picture of the Age of 
Reason. You will see a people in a state of disorder 
and revolt, clamoring for they know not what. And they 
put up the pagan goddess, Venus, the goddess of lust and 
impurity, upon the very altars where once was offered 
the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 

No ! The history of the past compels this great power 
Reason to kneel and confess its inability to bring man 
to his destined end, if not aided by some supernatural 
means; by Revelation. Hence it is, that by the world's 
pages of error, we are led to conclude, nay, forced to 
concede, the necessity of a Revealed Religion. Of a 
Religion which will in no wise conflict with the faculties 
and powers of man's reason, though it may be above it; 
of a Religion which will come with doctrines possessing 
the three attributes necessary to make it universal, 
namely: Unity, Authority, Sanction. 



16 



II. SERMON. 
CHRISTIANITY, THE REVEALED RELIGION. 



11 lam the way, the truth and the life." 

S. JOHN XIV. 6. 



We now come to examine the second question we pro- 
posed to ourselves. We asked and answered the query, 
" Whether or not, man could attain his end without a 
revealed religion ? " and we saw from the world's history 
of the past that man drifted about in a sea of error, we 
saw that when religion was left to reason alone, left as 
an object which reason should construct and act upon, 
that peoples and nations ran into absurdities respecting 
the simplest of God's truths. We examined the power 
of reason and paid to it its just tribute, when we admired 
its depth of conception and its power of execution ; but 
whilst we were charmed by its magnificence, we could 
not refrain from inquiring into its errors, and a chill 
passed through our frames when we saw that petty 
power of man, rising in its pride and questioning the 
very existence of the Author of its being; and we natu- 
rally concluded that if man were made for God, his 
Maker should furnish him the means of coming to God, 
and since reason was insufficient as a means, we admitted 
the necessity of revelation; that is, we admitted that 
God, were he to save man, should manifest Himself to 
2 17 



II. SERMON. 

the creature; should impart to him truth, and thus 
preserve him from error. 

We will examine here whether God did really manifest 
Himself to the creature, whether there be any religion 
upon earth revealed by God to Man? You may easily 
see the practical importance of such a question, for if 
it be true that God spoke to man, made His will known 
to man about the manner in which He should be served, 
we have but to inquire after the truth left by Him and 
follow it out to the letter if we would be His faithful 
servants. 

As there is but one God, it is evident that there can 
be but one religion, for religion is the way to God. We 
can only come to Him by truth, and truth is unchange- 
able. It is but one; it never varies. What was true 
yesterday is true to-day, and what was true in a certain 
place and a certain hour thousands of years ago will be 
equally true after ages have gone by. The characteris- 
tic of truth in its oneness is its unchangeableness. Truth 
then cannot be found in the many religions that are 
on this earth, for they differ from one another; nay, 
they are even opposed to one another. Which then is 
the only True Religion which we should follow prefer- 
ably to all others ? Which is the Revealed Religion ? 
Is Christianity a Divine Religion in its 'origin and in 
its teachings ? 

Our third question, where shall w^e find true Chris- 
tianity? What Church of the present possesses it? will 
be left to another time, and now we would only show to 
you the divinity or truth of Christianity; not that we 
would put before you any thing new, or that we would 
seek to convince you of a truth with which you are al- 
ready acquainted; but in order that you may be in- 
structed and able to give to others a reason " for the faith 
that is in you," as the Apostle Paul says, and in order 
at the same time that your admiration may be called 
forth, and your love grow stronger for your Holy Reli- 

18 



CHRISTIANITY. THE REVEALED RELIGION. 

gion and your practice of it more exact when you see 
that it is a Religion from God Himself. 

Christianity is as you know from its very name the 
religion of Christ; to establish its Divinity, to establish 
that it came from Heaven we have but to show that 
Christ its founder, had a divine mission, that He came 
into this world to effect a divine work, to set up the King- 
dom of God in man's heart ; it was not sufficient for Him 
to assert that He was God and that He came down from 
Heaven, people might not believe Him; in fact they 
would ask Him to make them certain of that; to show 
His credentials if He wished them to believe Him, to 
prove to them in some extraordinary way that He was 
as He called Himself, God. It was not sufficient for 
Him to teach a doctrine that the world had never before 
heard, it was not sufficient for Him to show that he was 
learned, it was not sufficient for Him to charm people 
by his discourses, to lead them after Him; for all this 
might be explained away by asserting that He was an 
extraordinary man; a man, the like of whom the world 
had never before seen or heard. To these, was some- 
thing more wanting ; they had been expecting a Messiah ; 
His character had already been made known by their 
prophets; His birth, the place of His nativity, His 
public life and death had been made known to them by 
those holy and gifted men. Examine then if He were 
the Messiah, if He were the Saviour, the Son of God sent 
into the world for its salvation. His character and life 
must be as foretold by the prophets, they should cor- 
respond . in every particular with the history that was 
given by these men, who were the guardians of God's 
chosen people. Open those inspired pages and you will 
regard them as a history of past events rather than a pre- 
diction of what was to be. Read those prophesies, and 
you will find them so clear in detail that when you come 
to compare them with the mysteries of Christianity, you 
will be induced to call them the history of Christianity, 

19 



II. SERMON. 

The place wherein the Messiah was to be born, His 
mission, the circumstances of His life and His death, 
His burial, His resurrection, His ascension into Heaven, 
the establishment of His Church upon the ruins of the 
Jewish Synagogue, the dispersion of the Jewish people 
— all are vividly portrayed and clearly foretold. All the 
events predicted have been accomplished, and after a 
manner so conformable to the predictions that Pagans 
even have been led to embrace the Religion of Christ. 

Saint Augustine was led to confess that a Religion 
that had been predicted by so many oracles, whose words 
had been verified even to the minutest circumstance must 
be necessarily Divine. 

It will be sufficient for us to recall but one of the 
many prophecies, the accomplishments of which fully 
demonstrate the truth of Christianity. Among the num- 
ber we need but consider the famous prophecy of Daniel 
respecting the Messiah, and the dispersion of the Jewish 
race. This people now, the unwilling witnesses to the 
religion of Jesus Christ, once possessing the richest por- 
tion of the earth's surface, governed by kings, kneeling 
at the same altar, offering the same sacrifices, and listen- 
ing to the words of their inspired leaders, was a power- 
ful nation. To-day we find them scattered all over the 
world like a wreck upon the ocean, going about as wan- 
derers, without a government, without priests, without 
sacrifices, without a temple. Their nationality is de- 
stroyed, and thus they wander without the faintest 
gleam of hope that they will ever again rise, and rank 
themselves among the nations of the earth. Do we not 
recognize in this the accomplishment of the words of 
Daniel, when he told the Jewish people five hundred 
years before the birth of Christ that when the Messiah 
would come they would put Him to death and after His 
death the people would be dispersed, their temple would 
be destroyed, their sacrifices abolished, and that thus they 
would remain a scattered people until the consummation 

20 



CHRISTIANITY, THE REVEALED RELIGION. 

of time. The Jewish people themselves have preserved 
their books, and they themselves are witnesses both to 
the prophecy and its fulfilment. We have seen nations 
disappear. We have read of Assyria; it is now no 
more; we have heard of Babylon, it is no longer known; 
we have been told of Greece and Rome's vast empire, 
but their boundaries are only to be found on the lettered 
pages of history; we have heard, too, of the Jewish peo- 
ple and unlike all the other nations that have perished, 
it alone remains, not attached to any particular place, 
not governed by any particular nation, but scattered in 
its members, testifying throughout the entire world to 
the Truth and Divinity of Christianity, testifying to 
the truth of Daniel that they should be scattered and left 
desolate after the coming of the Messiah until the con- 
summation of the ages. Do we not recognize in this 
the finger of Almighty God? Do we not recognize the 
finger of a power who marks out and sways the destinies 
of nations and makes use of them for his own just end? 
And finally do we not recognize the Divine Mission of 
Christ when we see it thus foretold, when we hear the 
prophet tell to his people its just punishment for the 
deicidal act of which it would be guilty ? 

To speak of the second proof of the Divinity of 
Christ's mission and consequently of Christianity I have 
but to ask you to consider the many wonderful works 
that He accomplished, the many miracles that He per- 
formed. A miracle as you all know is a work of God. 
He alone can perform a miracle, for He alone is the 
Lord and Master of Nature's laws; nor is this opposed 
to the belief that we entertain with regard to the mira- 
cles which the Saints effected, for in their case they them- 
selves were not the workers, but instruments which God 
made use of to manifest His power. If then we find 
Christ endowed with the power of miracles, if we find 
Him confirming His assertions by His wonderful power, 
if we find Him calling upon the people to believe His 

21 



n. SERMON. 

works, if they do believe His words, we must of neces- 
sity conclude either that God allowed the world to be 
deceived or that the mission of Christ was Divine. To 
assert the first that God allowed mankind to be deceived 
would be blasphemy; for we know that God made us for 
Himself, and must consequently aid us in coming to the 
knowledge of Him. We must say then that the mission 
of Christ was Divine, that the Religion that He taught 
is also Divine, and to be convinced of that we have but 
to examine His works. Read the new testament, the An- 
nals of the Church, the writings of the learned, of those 
who have made a study of the Scriptures, and you will 
find them testifying to miracles of all kinds effected 
either by Christ Himself or in virtue of His name. 
They will tell you of the blind who were suddenly made 
to see, of persons who were possessed by the devil and 
who were instantly freed, of Lazarus who had lain in 
the grave and of a widow's son who was being carried 
out for burial called back to life again. They will tell 
you of the Lord saying to the swelling sea, " Peace be 
still," and the waters obeyed Him. They will tell you 
of His saying to a multitude of five thousand people " Be 
fed," and five small loaves are sufficient, and they will 
go farther, and they will tell you of the efficacy of that 
Holy Name when made use of by the Apostles. And 
you will see them running to Him and telling Him of the 
wonders they worked, you will hear them say : " Master, 
even the devils are subject to us and obey us when, we 
make use of your name," and you will hear Peter, His 
chosen Apostle, as he passes through the streets, telling 
the maimed and the infirm who are borne out by their 
friends sick, on their pallets, to arise and go into their 
homes. Do not all these works proclaim the glory and 
the truth of Christianity ? Here were miracles, not in 
a certain town or in a certain place; not before a few 
witnesses, not before a people who were in any way pre- 
judiced or in favor of Christ, but wherever Christ went, 

22 



CHRISTIANITY, TH1E REVEALED RELIGION. 

wherever the sick were brought to Him, even in the 
presence of His enemies, the Scribes and Pharisees, who 
when they saw that they could not deny the great works 
He performed endeavored to excite the people against 
Him by, saying He did what He did in the name of the 
Devil. 

And here we might dwell on this, and tell you that 
this is indeed a strong proof in favor of the miracles 
wrought by Christ ; for you are not ignorant of the fact 
that in our day there are people who laugh and scoff at 
the idea of any such thing as a miracle; well, this is 
nothing new. There were always such people in the 
world, and even in the time of Christ, when He was walk- 
ing in the midst of men and working His greatest won- 
ders there was a class, then as now, who would deny, if 
they could, that He ever wrought a miracle. 

You have but to remember the gospel that was read 
to you but a few Sundays ago, and there it was said that 
a person possessed by a dumb devil was brought to our 
Blessed Lord to be healed. He cast it out, says St. Luke, 
and the multitude admired. But some of them said, 
" He casteth out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of 
devils." Here is the class of scoffers and unbelievers; 
they gathered around the possessed person and we may 
well imagine they gathered together there, hoping and 
wishing to see our Lord fail in what He proposed, and 
since they could not gainsay the evidence of their eyes 
and ears, they endeavored to make men believe that these 
wonders were performed in the name of the Devil. 

Well, that class of people are to be found upon the 
earth, and of late years even a bolder class; for within 
the past years the world has witnessed men who have 
taken up the pen of infidelity and with an air of boldness 
and dogmatism inspired by a hatred of all religion, 
they dare to tell the people of the world that they have 
been misled; that they were deluded and misled by a 
man called Christ, and his Apostles. We need but re- 

23 



II. SERMON. 

fleet a moment to see the absurdity into which they have 
fallen, and how far blinded they have been by their pre- 
sumption. They would have the world believe that Christ 
and His Apostles were imposters, that they were hypo- 
crites. They seem to forget that hypocrisy exists with- 
out sincerity. And if we examine the sincerity of 
Christ and His apostles, are we not charmed by it ? 
Would hypocrisy lead Him to live in poverty and want ? 
Would it lead His apostles to leave their homes, their 
friends, their families, all that they possessed upon the 
earth, to attach themselves to Him who had not, as he 
Himself complains, whereon to lay His head? Would 
hypocrisy lead men to be hated, to be despised, to be per- 
secuted, to be regarded as the enemies of society? Fi- 
nally, would hypocrisy have led the world astray for the 
last nineteen hundred years ? And if it did might we not 
say, and could we not say, and yet we dare not say it. 
Might we not say that God had conspired against man- 
kind for its destruction ? Neither will it do for the infidel 
to assert that Christ did not live upon the world. That 
it is all a fable. For in doing that, to be consistent all 
history that treats of the past that treats of kingdoms now 
unknown, of empires which existed ages before Christ 
appeared on the world, and of great men who flourished 
centuries before Christ will have to be set aside as fa- 
bles and we remain ignorant of the past, and sure only 
of the present. 

And more than that ; those unbelievers who do not admit 
the miracles of Christ will have to explain an astonish- 
ing miracle, viz: The fact of Christianity as they find it 
in the world. They will have to explain the astounding 
miracle of Christianity as it stands to-day. You know 
how it was propagated; it was not spread abroad by con- 
querors with the force of arms. Learned men were not 
chosen, who by their eloquence could win the assent of 
their hearers. ~Ro, not in this manner was Christianity 
introduced into the world. For if it were we might be 

24 



CHRISTIANITY, THE REVEALED RELIGION. 

logical in concluding that it was the work of man; but 
twelve ignorant men were chosen to conquer the world; 
twelve men who possessed neither talents, eloquence nor 
riches. And what were they supposed to do ? To teach 
a religion whose truths were mysteries, far above the 
grasp and comprehension of men's minds; they had to 
propose maxims of morality contrary to all natural in- 
clination; the hatred of oneself, the love of enemies, the 
mortification of the senses, and the crucifixion of the 
flesh. And whom were they supposed to teach? Was 
it a city, a town, a nation, the illiterate classes, or the 
men of learning and of erudition? No, not a city or 
town, but all nations; not this nor that class, not only 
the simple people, but the most enlightened of the world ; 
they had to go and teach even the men of power, who 
defied their doctrine, and who hated them and threatened 
with persecution, the most relentless, and a death the 
most cruel. What was its success ? Centuries bear testi- 
mony that it was scarcely made known when people em- 
braced it, followed it, died for it. 

Verily it is the grain of mustard, that has sprung up 
and become a mighty tree, in which the birds of the air 
may build their nests ; for its branches extend from north 
to south, and from east to west; and in its shade the na- 
tions of the earth, and the restless mind of man, has at 
last found quiet. Is not this a stupendous miracle for 
the unbeliever to explain? Well indeed and sharply did 
the great St. Augustine reason, when he said that the 
world was converted to the Christian religion by the aid 
of miracles or without them. If the conversion was the 
effect of miracles then God is its author ; but if on the 
other hand, it be not the effect of miracles, then the great- 
est, the most astonishing miracle is that the entire world 
was converted without miracles. Yes, it is the greatest of 
miracles. For is it not marvelous as St. Chrysostom 
gays, how twelve poor sinners, such as the Apostles, 
could ever convert the world; that twelve men ; the low* 

25 



II. SERMON. 

est among the people, without arms, without money, 
without learning, without a name, undertook and realized 
the conquest of the Roman Empire; twelve men in spite 
of all the opposition that was made against them, in 
spite of the difficulty of the doctrine that they preached, 
either to be understood or practiced, is it not wonderful, 
with what rapidity they spread their work? Why if 
they had been aided by Roman legions, and Roman 
wealth and power, we would have had to acknowledge 
that there was some other power more than human to 
account for its success, and the rapidity of its growth. 

The fulfillment of prophecy in the person of Christ 
and the power of miracles with which He was endowed, 
prove sufficiently the Divinity of the Religion He preached 
upon earth ; but besides these we might examine the sanc- 
tity and holiness of the doctrine He inculcated. 

But you might say what is the practical utility of 
such a sermon ? We are not addressing people without 
faith, people who are not fully and truly aware that 
Christianity is a Divine Religion, established by Christ, 
the second Divine Person of the Trinity, and your objec- 
tion is correct. But might we not reply, are there not 
persons, who at times act as if Christianity were not 
true? May there not be some, who, though they do not 
say with the infidel that Christianity is but an impo- 
sition, still act like persons who believe it to be an impos- 
ture, nay, we will go farther and say that they act 
w r orse; for the unbeliever is consistent; he does not be- 
lieve and consequently does not practice, what Christian- 
ity teaches, except by force of circumstances. But the 
man that protests that he is a Christian, and still does 
not practice his faith, is guilty of a glaring inconsistency. 
Take for instance the man against whom some outrage 
has been committed; he immediately makes up his mind 
to be avenged ; go to such a man and say to him, " you 
cannot take revenge, it is against the Christian law," 
and jhatjman will turn a deaf ear to you if he does not 

28 



CHRISTIANITY, THE REVEALED RELIGION. 

laugh at you; lie will not heed you. But come before 
that man not in the character of a Christian, but in the 
character of a worldling, and tell him have nothing to 
do with that man; flatter his pride, and tell him to take 
no notice of his enemy, that it would be beneath the dig- 
nity of his position to interfere with him, and that man 
will give way; he will no longer seek to gratify his re- 
venge, but he will not have courage to give way, because 
he is a Christian man. He would be ashamed ; he would 
be looked upon as pious and devout and that is sufficient 
to terrify him. Does such a man then regard Chris- 
tianity as true? He cannot, for if he did, how is it 
possible for him not simply to omit doing what it re- 
quires, but to consider it to be something disgraceful for 
him to obey its precepts. 

Again if you consider it true, why is it that you do 
not permit people to practice it freely, and indepen- 
dently? Would you think that those rulers of the world 
who have endeavored to do away with Christianity by 
persecution, by the sword, would you think that they be- 
lieved that it was true ? Would you think that the Ro- 
man Proconsul, who obliged the faithful to worship in 
the bowels of the earth, admitted the truth of Christian- 
ity ? It seems to me that you would not. Well, strange 
to say there are people, professing themselves Christians 
in our midst, who compel others to worship God in some 
private manner at home, or in their private oratory; 
because if they came out and went to their church as good 
pious Christians should do, they would be exposed to 
the ridicule of their companions; they would be counted 
out as pious and devout, as people who wish to be con- 
sidered holy; this is no picture of the imagination, the 
reality is met with daily; for instance there may be so- 
cieties or sodalities in a parish, the members of those 
societies join them in order that they may lead better 
lives, in order that they may become better Christians, 
but how are they looked upon by those who are not of 

27 



n. SERMON. 

their number? Why they are sneered at, laughed at in 
places where they may be working, during the day, and 
told there by people who profess to be Christians, young 
men and women, that they would belong to no such so- 
ciety as would interfere with their pleasure. Is this not 
opposing the practice of our holy faith even as the per- 
secutors of old once did? The only difference that can 
be discovered is that they opposed Christianity, with the 
sword, whereas you fling at it the shafts of ridicule; and 
that very ridicule is often more destructive, and often 
cuts deeper than the sword. 

Here, then, is the importance of such a sermon. 
Though it may not be addressed to a host of unbelievers. 
It is to show such persons that those who scoff and ridi- 
cule others, who are endeavoring to do better than them- 
selves ; it is to show such persons that the Religion of 
Christ is a True Religion; and that the more exacting a 
person is in the observance of what it enjoins, the better 
he becomes. If therefore it be true, why will you take 
the pains to oppose' those who wish to practice it ? Do 
you call this Faith ? Why we would say those persons 
who act thus are upon a mission, for which Hell itself 
is organized, namely, the destruction of Christ and His 
Religion. 

Be more careful then, and ever keep before your eyes 
the truth of Christ; and if you do not practice it, do 
not throw obstacles in the way of others doing so, rather 
admire their perseverance, and endeavor to imitate them, 
for in imitating them, you will be imitating Christ Him- 
self, you will take part in the work which He came to es- 
tablish, namely, the setting up the Kingdom of His 
Heavenly Father, and you may expect to share in the 
reward hereafter, which He has promised to His faith- 
ful followers. 



28 



III. SERMON. 
THE CHURCH OF GOD. 



" I believe in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church" 



Such are the words which resound through our 
Churches when the choir Sunday after Sunday sings the 
Profession of Faith taught us from our childhood. We 
are fully convinced of the necessity of a Revealed Reli- 
gion, and we are at the same time sure that the religion 
preached by Christ is that Revealed Religion. We have 
then but to examine in which one of the Churches calling 
themselves Christian we shall find the true word of God 
preached; which one is the true Spouse of Christ, the 
true Church of God. For it is evident to every think- 
ing mind that though they all profess to be Christians 
they cannot all be so, because they contradict one an- 
other. 

Our Blessed Lord in compassionating human nature 
came to save it. For that purpose He preached a doc- 
trine calculated to lead man, if he would follow it, to 
his destined end. That doctrine was not to be the teach- 
ing of His time merely. Men were to bow down their 
heads in our day as well as in His to the truths He taught 
them, though it might be difficult to understand them. 
His mission upon this world was not to tell men to fol- 
low out the truths which appear to them consistent with 

29 



III. SERMON. 

their individual powers of understanding; but He came 
as a teacher, and not only as a teacher, but as one who 
was to sanctify and make men holy and virtuous; He 
came not to consult their tastes or private opinions, but 
as One who was to call upon them to throw aside the 
lessons they had received from the world and to adopt 
His ; He came to enforce doctrines, to place before them 
truths that they were to believe, and to give commands 
which they were to follow if they wished to share in 
His happiness hereafter. His was not a religion of con- 
veience, His was not a religion that might be adopted 
or rejected at will, but it was one they were obliged to 
receive under pain of eternal loss. ISTow if this were the 
manner of Christ's preaching in His time, if He exacted 
belief in His teachings from every individual hearer, look 
about the world in our day and tell me where is the 
Church which claims the right to teach, where is the 
Church which sanctifies her members throughout time 
and space. In other words, where is the Church which 
is one in its teachings, and consequently one in its belief; 
where is the Church which is holy, which sanctifies by its 
ministrations to her children ; where is the Church which 
exists for all time and for all space; where is the Church 
which comes down to our day uninterruptedly from the 
Apostles who were first sent forth to preach the word of 
Christ. 

The Catholic Church alone possesses these character- 
istics which Christ impressed upon His holy religion in 
the beginning. It alone is One, it alone is Holy, it alone 
is Catholic and Apostolic. You find unity in its Profes- 
sion of Faith, unity in the number of its Sacraments, 
unity in the submission of its members to one heavenly 
appointed head. This triple band of unity is its strength, 
its glory, and it charms the reflecting mind with beauty 
and harmony. Go from pole to pole, visit the countries 
of both hemispheres and you will find, no matter where 
you enter a Catholic Church, the same Profession of 

30 



THE CHURCH OF GOD. 

Faith; language and manners may differ, the ceremonies 
may even vary, but the Faith, the expression of the belief 
of a Catholic people remains as immutable as God Him- 
self. To-day, as in centuries gone by, the Church rejects 
and casts forth into the world of doubt and disbelief him 
who would dare change her creed or preach an article of 
faith not held by her. Neither are those who submit 
their intelligence to her teachings men of any peculiar 
class, of any particular nation or country; they are men 
of all classes; you will find them scattered abroad over 
the world, amid the barbarians of Africa, as well as in 
the circles of European civilization ; neither are they illit- 
erate men, or men of minds who might be changed by the 
external pomp of the Church, or men w T ho would become 
the slaves of a beautiful idea which has been realized by 
chance. They are men of keen understanding, men who 
have tested and tried the firmness of their footing, men 
who have studied and have been fully convinced that if 
there be a God above them and a religion of His upon this 
earth, that religion must be that of the Catholic Church ; 
and it is to this inspiring phenomenon, which no power 
save that of the Church has ever presented to the world, 
that we would particularly call your attention. 

If there be a peculiarity in the minds of men which 
baffles solution, it is certainly their fickleness. Man's 
mind might be likened to a weather vane, changing with 
every prevailing opinion. Each succeeding age imagining 
that it is far in advance of its predecessor, begins to de- 
stroy and throw down that which has been built up with 
great care and labor ; that which at one time was received 
as the everlasting truth, is now looked upon as some ridi- 
culous fancy. The history of all the Natural Sciences is 
but a record of theories, once eagerly defended, but now 
contemptuously abandoned, and if we examine the. differ- 
ent schools of moral and intellectual science, the same fact 
of continual change constantly appears. So, too, if you 
examine the various denominations calling themselves 

31 



III. SERMON. 

Christians, you will find them disagreeing on the most 
vital points of belief. In fact, no two individuals, though 
they frequent the same Church and seat themselves side 
by side Sunday after Sunday and listen to a self-styled 
teacher, are compelled to have the same profession of be- 
lief ; for the very simple reason that there is no power in 
their midst which claims the right of teaching, and obe- 
dience cannot be exacted. 

If then the spirit of change ever affects the workings 
of man's mind, and if it be true that all purely human 
science varies from day to day, can we on this earth find 
any power giving stability to the human mind, making 
men no longer the toy and plaything of opinion ? We 
look about and upon this world, vast and beautiful as it 
is, we see but one only Church ; for that all thanks. We 
hail Her with delight, with gladsome hearts, as mariners 
tossed about on the boisterous ocean welcome the first 
glimpse of land. What a wondrous power is Catholicity ! 
It is the Church with which Christ has promised to re- 
main for ages. " Go you and teach, and behold I am 
with you all days even to the consummation of the world." 
Within its fold we behold an astonishing constancy of 
doctrine to which an unchanging assent is always yielded, 
not merely by ordinary but by master minds. From the 
dawn of Christianity to our own day each century throws 
out its well filled roll of honored names which with the 
right to be called great, have the glory of being Catholic. 
You will find them identified with every department of 
knowledge, Theology, Philosophy, Poetry, History, Ora- 
tory, Jurisprudence ; men who have exhausted the natural 
sciences, men honored in their own land and in all lands, 
known in their own age and to be known in after ages; 
not merely a few bright particular stars illumining our 
own learning but men w T ho will ever be found in the in- 
tellectual firmament, steadily shining in the horizon of 
human knowledge. These form indeed a marvelous ar- 
ray of brilliant minds, of men who know full well their 

32 



THE CHURCH OF GOD. 

greatness, who are looked upon with reverence by those 
around them ; who exercise great influence in their own 
sphere but who yet are most obedient to the voice of the 
Church; who firmly believe her doctrines, who with full 
undoubting, unchanging faith, accept all her teachings. 
They make no distinction between the various dogmas as 
more or less probable, but accept all with the same stead- 
fast faith. 

But do these great men who are united on matters of 
religious belief agree as harmoniously on other subjects ? 
Far from it ; once outside of the domain of Catholic faith 
the widest divergence of thought prevails; then sympa- 
thies and antipathies of age and country assert themselves 
and clash together, the horrid deeds of war may even 
further prove how broad a chasm lies between state and 
state. Catholic nations may have met and may meet in 
deadly strife, still, on points of faith they are one and 
all united, if necessary would suffer their blood to mingle 
in its defense. Here, then, is a wonderful fact presented 
to your consideration. We find men who have no com- 
mon sympathies but opposite interests to sever them, dif- 
fering in natural disposition and in acquired taste, 
thoughtful, intelligent men, scholars who have gained for 
themselves undying glory in every branch of learning; 
such men in every age and in every land we find firmly 
united in religious belief. To account for that astonish- 
ing unity must we not necessarily recur to that promise 
given by Christ : " Behold I am with you all days even 
to the consummation of the world." Must we not of 
necessity recognize the efficacy of his prayer for his dis- 
ciples when before his Passion He prayed : " Holy Father, 
keep them in thy name whom thou hast given me, that 
they may be one as we also are one. As thou has sent 
me into the world, I also have sent them into the world, 
and for them I do sanctify myself that they also may 
be sanctified in truth ; and not for them only do I pray, 
but for those also who through their word shall believe 
3 33 



III. SERMON. 

in me, that they may be all one as thou Father in me 
and I in thee; that they also may be one in us, that the 
world may believe that thou hast sent me." Here Christ 
prays His Heavenly Father to grant unity in truth, and 
unity in charity to His Disciples and followers, and be- 
seeches Him to make this unity of faith and love a very 
mark by which the world may be convinced of His divine 
mission. Whence it follows that those who are not one 
in faith and one in love are not followers of Christ, but 
opponents to that heavenly mission, namely, the Salva- 
tion for which He came upon this world. 

Together with the unity of teaching and of faith we 
will cite the faithful of the Catholic Church, participat- 
ing in the same Sacraments from the time Christ sent His 
disciples into the world down to the present day. The 
Church has ever and always maintained Seven Sacra- 
ments; seven chief aids for the Christian while journey- 
ing through- the world. These means of sanctification 
she tells us were left by Christ, and she appeals to anti- 
quity and shows from Scripture that they were instituted 
by Christ Himself. 

For her Sacrament of Baptism she refers us to the com- 
mand given by Christ to His Apostles to go and teach all 
nations, " baptizing them in the name of the Father, and 
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." For her Sacrament 
of Confirmation she may point to the Acts of the Apostles, 
where we are told that those at Samaria were only bap- 
tized and had yet to receive the Holy Ghost, that there- 
fore Peter and John were sent to them, and when they 
laid their hands upon them they received the Holy Ghost. 
For her Sacrament of the Eucharist she has Christ's own 
words : " This is my body, this is my blood. Do this 
in commemoration of me." For her Sacrament of Pen- 
ance Christ has again said, when sending His Disciples 
into the world : " Whose sins you shall forgive they are 
forgiven, whose sins you shall retain they are retained." 
For her Sacrament of Extreme Unction we find in the 

34 



THE CHURCH OF GOD. 

Epistle of St. James, these words : " Is any man siek 
among you, let him bring in the Priests of the Church 
and let them pray over him, anointing him with holy oil 
in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith shall 
save the sick man, and the Lord shall raise him up ; and 
if he be in sin they shall be forgiven him." For her Sac- 
rament of Orders she need but tell us of Christ, select- 
ing a chosen twelve upon whom He breathed saying: " All 
power is given to me in heaven and on earth. As the 
Father sent me, so I send you. Receive you the Holy 
Ghost." For her Sacrament of Matrimony we have but 
to listen to the words of the Apostle Paul, who calls this 
a Great Sacrament in the Church. 

These Sacraments we have to-day; these Sacraments 
which are mentioned in Scripture, are found only in the 
Catholic Church. In vain will you seek for them outside 
of her pale. Inquire after them among the many churches 
that surround us, and you will find some admitting three, 
others two, others maintaining that none are necessary. 
Seek for Baptism and you will find some who maintain 
that it is necessary for Salvation, while others regard it 
but as a ceremony of initiation into their society. Seek 
for Confirmation; to most of the sects it is unknown. 
Seek for the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and you 
will find the truth of Christ's real Presence corrupted, 
the words of institution mutilated, and their significance 
distorted. Seek for Penance and the very idea of such 
a Sacrament is laughed at, though Christ himself proved 
by curing the sick that the Son of Man had power to for- 
give sins. It is now denied by most of the sects, or if 
it be preserved it is regarded but as a mockery. Seek 
for Extreme Unction, that Sacrament of consolation to 
the dying; despite the plain words of St. James you will 
not find it. Seek for the Sacrament of Orders and you 
will find that some of the sects hold that man needs no 
commission to preach the Word, to exercise the ministry 
of the Apostles; that he has but to assert himself as a 

35 



III. SERMON. 

student of Scripture and then be appointed by tbe people. 
Seek for the Sacrament of Matrimony; you will find that 
with some of those sects professing to be Christians, that 
Sacrament which St. Paul speaks of and which the Church 
has guarded with jealous care, is looked upon as a mere 
civil contract, with no greater obligation imposed than 
would be upon the seller and buyer of a piece of furniture. 
In this manner are the very means appointed by Christ for 
our sanctification thrown aside and considered as so many 
useless ceremonies. In this manner are these Sacraments 
whose truth is contained in Scripture, Sacraments which 
the world has seen administered for centuries, which a 
constant and universal tradition testifies to, ignored by an 
age which flatters itself that it is enlightened and for 
that reason no longer cares to be subject to the truths 
which the world clung to in the past. 

In contemplating this unity of the faithful throughout 
all times and all places, we must certainly be struck with 
these facts, and forced to confess that there must indeed 
be truth where there is such constancy ; while on the other 
hand we must recognize error among the sects who are 
always changing. In fine, the faithful of Christ's Church 
are one in their submission to their divinely-appointed 
Head, the Pope, the legitimate appointed successor of St, 
Peter, the Vicar of Jesus Christ upon earth. In every 
society, as a matter of necessity, there exist laws, and some 
supreme authority which enforces and carries them out. 
Christianity is but a society established by Christ upon 
this earth, and like others we must find within it these 
guarantees of Order. There must be laws regulating its 
members and a power to see that the law is obeyed. To 
discover this power we must go back to the foundation of 
Christianity and there seek for its establishment. We read 
in the Gospel of St. Matthew that our Blessed Lord after 
His resurrection appeared to His Disciples on a certain 
mountain that he had made known to them as the place in 
which they would see Him. There it was that He said 

36 



THE CHURCH OF GOD. 

to them : " All power is given to me on heaven and on 
earth ; go teach all nations, teach them to observe all things 
whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold, I am 
with you all days to the consummation of the world." 
" Go, and he that heareth you heareth me, and he that 
despiseth you despiseth me, and he that despiseth me, de- 
spiseth Him that sent me." What power, what authority 
was here given by Christ to His Apostles ! Was power 
equal to it ever granted to man before or after? Was a 
commission ever more definitely established in this world 
than the commission which Christ gave to His Disciples 
to go and to teach, and to teach even to the consummation 
of time ! 

Of a certainty Christ established a body of Pastors who 
were to guide men and to teach them the things He had 
commanded ; not only this, He clothed that body of men, 
those men who were to be the teachers of the world, with 
His own divine authority and guaranteed the continual 
assistance of His presence ; moreover, He wished that they 
should be heard as He himself was heard, as the Father 
who sent Him from heaven was to be heard. From this 
naturally enough comes the conclusion that within the 
Church of Christ we must find a body of teachers, a body 
of men to whom the sacred trust of instructing the faith- 
ful is confided, and at the same time the faithful are 
obliged to adopt their teaching. Seek for the society es- 
tablished by Christ in this manner, seek for it through- 
out the world ; and I tell you that you will seek for it in 
vain among the sects around you. Do their preachers 
come before us in the character of teachers ? Do they 
come to preach in the manner in which Christ preached 
in His day; not consulting the tastes and wishes of the 
people, but speaking the truth to them, telling them of 
their vices and reproaching them with their sins, not 
caring whether it would please or offend ? Do they come 
before the world as did Christ with any set form of truth ; 
do they come and tell us that this or that doctrine which 

37 



III. SERMON. 

they teach was to be found among the things which God 
commanded should be made known to the world ? Do yon 
ever hear in their midst of any of the threats that Christ 
made use of when speaking to the rich, or of His blessings 
when speaking to the poor ? In none will you find a unity 
of teaching on the part of those who call themselves Min- 
isters of God, and in none will you find submission on 
the part of the people ; you will find there no hierarchy, 
no supreme power, nothing but change and division. To- 
gether with personal independence in matters of faith and 
worship, they have installed an era of the most absolute 
individualism in religion, and to-day the world may in- 
deed stand astonished at the infidelity which it wit- 
nesses. 

In our Church alone, the Catholic Church, will you 
find preachers who come before the world with the zeal 
of Christ, and people who receive them as messengers sent 
by Heaven with the right to teach; hence you will find 
a unity that ever exists despite the pride of man's intelli- 
gence, the power of passion, or national prejudice. The 
Catholic Church alone shows to her children, in the person 
of the Pope, one whom they all recognize as the person 
appointed by Christ to feed both sheep and lambs, both 
the faithful and their bishops. In her bishops and priests 
we recognize the prelates of whom St. Paul wrote to the 
Hebrews : " Obey your prelates and be subject to them, 
for they watch as being to render an account of your 
souls." She recognizes in them so many sentinels of the 
house of Israel who continually watch and care for the 
souls of her children, knowing full well that they 
must one day render an account of the charge given 
them. 

In contemplating this triple unity of the Church, are 
we not constrained to confess that this beauty which 
charms us is the beauty of God's own house, and that 
we are looking upon his sublimest work. Surely that 
marvelous unity is not accomplished by any earthly in- 

38 



THE CHURCH OF GOP. 

fluence, more than human agency must work so great a 
wonder; none other than a power such as that which de- 
fined limits for the tossing billows of the ocean, none 
other than the Power of God could accomplish so great 
a work. 



39 



-*/ 



IV. SERMON. 
THE SANCTITY OF THE CHURCH. 



11 lam the way, the truth and the life" 

s. john xiv. 6. 



There is no man who admits that Christ came upon 
this earth to establish a Church whereby He might save 
souls, but will acknowledge at the same time that an essen- 
tial mark or characteristic of that Church must be sanc- 
tity. The whole end, object and aim of Christ's mission 
upon this earth was to sanctify souls; for this was He 
born into the world, for this did He lead that life of self-de- 
nial and mortification for thirty-three years for this did He 
die the humiliating death on the cross. The Church then 
that makes this sanctification of souls her end, her ob- 
ject and mission is necessarily the Church of Christ, and 
must needs be Holy. 

Which one of the many Churches whose names we hear 
in the world is able to appropriate, the title of Holy? 
Which may claim indisputably this distinction ? The 
Catholic Church alone claimed and proved that she pos- 
sessed the note of Unity, and as she showed and still con- 
tinues to show to the world that she is one in teaching 
and consequently one in faith, she alone can lay claim to 
the glory of being styled Holy. She is the Church which 
comes before us with a four-fold sanctity. We find her 

40 



THE SANCTITY OP THE CHURCH. 

teachings holy, her Sacraments holy, her members holy, 
her founder our Lord Jesus Christ, holy and divine. The 
precepts given on Mt. Sinai to Moses, the warnings and 
counsels of the prophets, the lessons of morality uttered 
by Christ whilst He walked among men; these are the 
teachings that did away with the gross ideas of public 
honesty and morality that existed in the time of the 
Roman Emperors. 

You know the state of the world previous to the coming 
of our Lord. The ideas that were abroad respecting the 
individual made these potentates the slaves of society. 
There was no such thing as personal honor or personal 
independence. The ideas that obtained respecting the 
family attacked and destroyed its very existence, for the 
condition of the mother was that of a criminal. With 
such ideas of the family and individual, the state and the 
state's authority loomed up as a gigantic power that 
crushed out the personal life of the individual, and de- 
stroyed the fixity and stability of the family. v Such was 
the scene presented to the world as a consequence of man's 
teaching, for we must remember that the ancient world 
possessed illustrious men, men of profound genius and 
practical ability. Yet there was lacking one thing in 
their teachings, and that was : authority to teach. The 
right to teach, and in consequence the duty of following 
out their lessons was not recognized. The Church then 
had to combat these errors, she had to remould society; 
thus she laid hold of its chief element, the individual, and 
raised him up in the estimation of mankind. This she 
did by her Heaven-sent Doctrine. She told him of his 
dignity, told him of his relationship with another and 
more beautiful world, told him that while on this earth 
all things were to be made subservient to his destiny as 
a child of God, told him of his duties with regard to the 
state, and thus elevated the individual socially. But still 
her work was not accomplished. She must direct him to 
his true home— Heaven. She begins to instruct him, tella 

41 



IV. SERMON. 

him of the birthright he has lost by the fall of his first 
parents, and implants a longing desire within his heart 
for gaining that country from which he is exiled by sin. 
Then she places before him the means of obtaining it. 
She condemns not only the greater vices, and those which 
are more repugnant to human nature and a terror to hu- 
man society, but she even brands our smaller imperfec- 
tions as something we must rid ourselves of if we would 
be wholly pleasing in the sight of God. Nay more, her 
teachings go further, she even lays hold of and regulates 
the very thoughts that go passing through our minds. A 
desire welling up from our ill-regulated natures must not 
be consented to; a desire for revenge, even when injured, 
must be stifled in the very first moment that we are con- 
scious of it. Our duties to God and our duties to our 
neighbor are clearly mapped out. With regard to God, 
we are told while seated as children on the school-bench, 
that we were made but to know, love, and serve Him, that 
we must offer Him our worship and our homage from the 
very beginning of our lives to the end. As we grow up 
and attain the use of reason the Church comes more 
vividly before us in her character of representative of 
Christ upon earth, she unfolds before us those precepts 
which are binding upon the conscience; so binding that 
to reject them is to reject the very authority of Christ 
Himself. By them we are told of a Sacrifice at which we 
must assist every Sunday of our lives in order that we may 
exhibit publicly the supreme worship that we owe God. 
With regard to our neighbor, we must above all love him 
after God. Also mankind of every description, no mat- 
ter what country they may claim, no matter whether of 
noble or humble birth, all are children of Adam, are our 
neighbors, and as such we must love them. Anger is never 
to manifest itself upon our countenances or in our words, 
hatred is never to take up its abode within our hearts, 
revenge is a word that must be meaningless, while jeal- 
ousy, the fire-brand, is henceforth to be extinguished. For 

42 



THE SANCTITY OF THE CHURCH. 

the Gospel of the Catholic Christian is one of charity, is 
one of love. It is a Gospel that commands us to bless 
those who injure us, and pray for them that persecute us 
and calumniate us. Yet more is demanded of us ; duties 
with regard to ourselves are imposed, we have to keep our 
hearts detached from the goods of this w r orld and keep 
them fixed upon that other and happier sphere of Heaven. 
Our lives are to be lives of imitation, and the model after 
which we must fashion our lives is none the less than that 
of Christ our Lord. We must study His denial of self, 
the mortification He practiced, the patience He manifested 
in all His sufferings, the charity that led Him to die for 
a sinful world. Thus, by studying those virtues and 
pondering upon them, we may, aided by the grace of God, 
begin to reproduce them in ourselves, and become in very 
deed other Christs. Was there ever society upon earth 
endowed with such ideas of justice and morality ? Why, 
to consider the Catholic Church, in her teachings alone, 
is sufficient to convince any unprejudiced mind of her 
Divinity. But you may object, and tell me that the 
Catholic Church in putting those truths before the world 
is doing no more than any of the Churches that surround 
us, for these are Gospel truths common to all "the sects 
who profess themselves Christians. We would willingly 
admit that they are Gospel truths and Gospel precepts ; 
but when w T e see every individual mind allowed to pass 
judgment upon them, and to say whether or not they bind 
us, then we are forced to ask the question: did Christ 
when He taught those lessons leave them to the good 
pleasure of the people to adopt or reject at will, or did He 
teach them as binding, as truths that w^ere to be practiced 
independently of what w T e might think of them ? It 
seems to us that since He came upon earth to teach, He 
taught irrespective of our notions, and hence it was our 
duty to carry out whatever He enjoined. Therefore we 
recognize the Catholic Church as holy in her teachings, 
for that Church alone teaches as did Christ, heeding not 

43 



IV. SERMON. 

the comments of mankind, but setting her truth in bold 
and unmistakable language before the world. Her Doc- 
trines are doctrines which would sanctify us. But they 
are difficult, say men. Well, if they be difficult, the 
Church supplies us with means to overcome whatever may 
be in the way of carrying them out, and these means are 
likewise a means of sanctification. They are the Sacra- 
ments, seven in number, that were instituted by Christ. 
When infants, we are presented to the Church in order 
that she may bathe our souls in the precious blood of 
Christ, and thus cleanse us from the stain of original sin. 
At our Baptism we were incorporated with Christ, we 
became bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, for : " as 
many of you/' says the Apostle, " as have been baptized 
in Christ have put on Christ." Nay more, from that 
moment we are temples of the Holy Ghost; hence it was 
that the Apostle said Christ loved the Church and de- 
livered Himself up for it that He might sanctify it, cleans- 
ing it by water in the word of life, that He might present 
it to Himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle 
or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without 
blemish. 

But full well was it known that there would be times 
in our lives when we would give way to some of the many 
temptations that surround us, that then w r e would stain 
that white robe of innocence which was bestowed on us in 
our Baptism. Were we then to be deprived of all hope, 
were there to be no means of again placing ourselves in 
God's friendship and pleasure ? With a load of sin press- 
ing upon our souls, and our hearts breaking with despair, 
were we to be refused the joy of going to our Blessed Lord 
and telling Him that we had been wandering children, that 
we had been cheated by- the pleasures and vanities of the 
world? No! In His mercy He erected the tribunal of 
Penance, that tribunal into which we may entner without 
fear of the minister of Christ. No matter what His im- 
perfections are, He must be at least patient, gentle, and 

44 



THE SANCTITY OF THE CHURCH. 

the only severity that He can manifest is that of a Father 
who would seek to win back an erring son. There the 
soul crushed to earth may enter, there tell out its crimes, 
its weakness, and imperfections, tell them out as though 
they were not told, tell them out and then hear those 
words of encouragement : " Go, thy sins are forgiven 
thee; go now and sin no more." Nay, go and eat of my 
flesh and drink of my blood, that you may have life ever- 
lasting. Such is the care of our Mother the Church for 
our sanctification. She meets us in our infancy, enrolls 
us among her members, looks after our youth, accompanies 
us during manhood, seeks for us when we become way- 
ward, and stands at our bedside when the world of our 
future is breaking in upon us, that she may comfort us in 
our last moments upon earth. For us she was founded 
and for us does she labor unceasingly. 

And here, we cannot allow the opportunity to go by with- 
out correcting a notion that seems prevalent, if we are to 
judge from actions, among many who style themselves 
Catholics. They stay away from Confession and Commu- 
nion, stay away for months and years, and when they 
are asked why it is that they did not approach the Sacra- 
ment sooner, the only excuse they have to offer is, that 
they have been away so long that they did not like to come. 
Or again, they may say that they have been guilty of great 
sins and so could not bring themselves to go to confession. 
Do such people understand why these Sacraments were 
instituted ? Where did we ever learn that they were in- 
stituted for Angels and Saints ? The Angels are con- 
firmed in grace and require them not, the Saints are at 
rest with Almighty God and require them not. We 
alone, struggling on this earth for the mastery over our 
passions, and we alone, are the ones that need them. 
Hence the very excuse which you offer as keeping you 
away from these Sacraments is the very reason why you 
should go there, and often. For how can you expect to 
overcome sin ? You are not stronger when you are alone 

45 



IV. SERMON. 

than if you were armed with weapons which Christ has 
prepared for the Christian's warfare upon this earth. 
Since the Church offers to her children the highest mo- 
tives and the most powerful means to sanctify life, we 
must look for them first among her members. 

When Christ commissioned His Apostles He sent them 
out to bring forth fruit, The sanctity of the Apostles 
and Disciples need not be dwelt upon; but beyond that, 
if we seek for personal holiness, where shall we find it 
save in the Catholic Church ? In every age, throughout 
every clime and every land, you will find as the fruits of 
it, men and women who followed the precepts of the Gos- 
pel and became Saints of God and benefactors of the hu- 
man race. Read the history of the Church and you will 
read of men who were so detached from the goods of earth 
that they literally fulfilled the counsel given to the young 
man in the Gospel of selling all that they possessed and 
giving it to the poor. You will read of men who quitted 
home, broke off all family ties, and buried themselves in 
the desert and there lived the life of Anchorites. Father, 
mother, brother, sister, land or estate, had no attractions 
for them. They threw thorn aside in order that they 
might follow more closely in the footsteps of Him who, 
though rich, had no place whereon He might lay His head. 
But why need we look to the history of the past for holi- 
ness of life in the members of the Catholic Church. We 
might indeed cast a glance over the catalogue of her 
Saints, and we might tell of her missionaries who sacri- 
ficed life itself in order that they might spread the light 
of the Gospel; but what need of it, since in our day, we 
may find an array of holy souls equal to times past. 
How many generous souls might we meet daily? How 
many souls that have renounced the pleasures held out to 
them by an alluring world. How many men and women 
have through it withdrawn from the world and now spend 
their lives in works of charity. Look at our Sisters of 
the Poor as they wander from street to street begging for 

46 



THE SANCTITY OF THE CHURCH. 

the sick and the infirm, and ask yourselves what charm 
can there be in begging from door to door and in meeting 
with insults. Follow after her and enter the hospital 
ward and behold the sights that there surround her; 
sights that make the brain grow dizzy and the heart grow 
sick. Behold how tenderly she nurses that uncouth 
stranger whose face she has never before seen, whose name 
she has never before heard. Listen to the words of hope 
she whispers in his ear, and then ask yourselves what 
enchantment has come over her soul that she will thus 
care to wear out her days in this world in that sickly 
place. Take again our Sisters of Mercy and our Sisters 
of Charity, inquire into their lives, examine their duties, 
watch them as they are sent from place to place, from 
country to country; stand by one on the battle-field and 
in the pest house, and watch them as their ranks grow 
thinner. No face becomes pale, no arm becomes weak, no 
shrinking is visible; and then again ask yourselves, what 
is it leads those tender creatures into the very face of 
danger, creatures who before would have shrunk away, 
now growing strong and becoming ready to sacrifice them- 
selves on the field of Charity. View the missionary as 
he goes to distant lands to fill the place of one who had 
been martyred, goes carrying but his Testament and his 
Imitation, goes demanding no security for his life; and 
then again ask what mysterious power is this that leads 
him to sacrifice himself for his fellow-men. Nor need 
we consider the religious alone in looking for saintly 
deeds. In the world we meet them daily; people who 
live up to all the duties of their state of life, poor though 
possessing abundance, humble in the honors that are 
heaped upon them by the world, leading pure, chaste so- 
ber lives. " By their fruits you shall know them." 

Here then are the fruits of the Catholic Church, of 
pious and holy souls carrying out the evangelical counsels. 
In vain shall we seek for an array like it upon earth. In 
vain shall we seek for them among the sects that sur- 

47 



IV. SERMON. 

round us, for, having separated from the Church they 
have separated from the Holy Ghost that dwells within 
the Church and brings forth fruit. They are branches 
cut from the vine, and being severed have become barren. 
True, there are many and bad Catholics in our midst, 
but w T hose is the fault? Surely it cannot be imputed to 
the Church. Her means are sufficient to sanctify all. 
The fault lies in the perverseness of the human will. The 
teachings of the Church are not practiced, the Sacraments 
are not frequented, and in consequence need w T e wonder 
if we find Almighty God permitting such individuals to 
fall into great crimes as a punishment for their rejection 
of His abundant graces. Besides, we must remember that 
the Church is that field in which the tares and wheat grow 
up together, the net cast into the sea enclosing within its 
meshes the good and the bad. She is a Church that never 
repudiates the sinner ; she is like her divine founder, going 
out into this world seeking after sinners. Therefore the 
accusation is brought against her as it was against Christ, 
that she is the friend of the publican and the sinner. 

The next crowning of the Church's Sanctity is, that she 
has Christ for her founder, and this it is that makes her 
holy in her doctrine and holy in her Sacraments ; for hav- 
ing Christ as her founder, as her chief corner stone, the 
building rises before us as a temple of holiness. Run 
over the history of His life as given to us by the Evange- 
lists and you will discover an innocence of life that will 
charm, love the most universal, humility the most, pro- 
found; in a word you will find a life the most irreproach- 
able. As a proof of this we need but revert to the ques- 
tions put by Him to his enemies the Jews when He asked 
them : " Which of you shall convict me of sin ? " They 
were silent. They could not answer, for they could bring 
no charge against Him. Even when Pilate examined Him 
privately and endeavored to find out whether he was not 
guilty of some of the charges that the false witnesses had 
brought, he was obliged to return and confess that he 

48 



THE SANCTITY OF THE CHURCH. r 

found no cause in the man. His enemies were not able 
to find the least guilt in Him, nay the fame of His sanc- 
tity so far impressed the Pagans that one of the Emperors 
proposed to the senate to place His statue among those 
of the gods of the Empire. IsTor do His purity and holi- 
ness of life astonish us who regard Him with the eyes of 
faith, for in Him we recognize the Second person of the 
Trinity, true God and true Man. In Him we recognize 
the Son of God who came to save the human race, who 
came to establish a means of salvation, a way by which 
men should come to God. In Him we recognize the 
divine founder of the Catholic Church, and hence it is 
that the Catholic Church may claim His cross above all 
others and place it upon her spires and over her taber- 
nacles; for she is the spouse of the Crucified God Christ 
Jesus our Lord. Xow look to the sects who are separated 
from us ; their very number terrifies us, and warns us that 
there cannot be truth where there is such discussion and 
division. We look at them and tell them you are but of 
yesterday and we demand your credentials. You come as 
teacher, slunv your authority ! Could a Luther or a Cal- 
vin give them ? ~No ! Until these two degenerate sons of 
the Church arose you were not known, and now could 
they but rise from their tombs they would not recognize 
you as their posterity. K'ay more, you are worse than the 
Jews of old, for they would not rend the garments of our 
Lord at the foot of the cross, but cast lots for it ; whereas 
you daily rend Christ Himself in rending the truth that 
He left for the salvation of the world. 

Should we not continually return thanks to Almighty 
God for having deigned to make us members of His Holy 
Church ? We might, as so many others have done, fallen 
off from Him, we might, like so many others, have been 
born out of the true pale. It is by the goodness of God that 
we are within His Church, and for this blessing, the great- 
est that could be imparted to us in this world, we should 
ever be grateful; and while grateful for the happiness 
£ 49 



IV. SERMON. 

which we enjoy let us remember those who are not of us, 
remember them in our prayers and ask the Almighty to 
bring them in that they may be sanctified and made holy. 
Also, neglect not your own sanctification. You are within 
the bosom of a Church which holds sufficient means to 
sanctify the world, but only on the condition that you 
will be obedient to her voice, that you will frequent her 
Sacraments, those ever-flowing fountains of grace, pur- 
chased at no less a price than the precious blood of the 
Second Divine Person of the Trinity made man. 



50 



V. SERMON. 
THE CATHOLICITY OF THE CHURCH. 



11 And He shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river 
unto the ends of the earth." — Psalms lxxi. 8. 



Such was the picture placed before the prophetic eye 
of the Psalmist when he saw the kingdom of Christ estab- 
lished upon earth. He saw rolling upon its surface rivers 
majestic and mighty, which would seem to sever all com- 
munication among men. He saw oceans tossing in their 
fury and roaring : " Destruction to him who would at- 
tempt to master them." He saw rising from the breast 
of earth lofty mountains and solid walls seeming to for- 
bid man to associate with his fellow man. He saw there 
Man, the object of God's love and of God's goodness ; saw 
him differing from his fellow-creatures in race, color, 
heart and tongue. Still, despite all the obstacles which 
nature offered to man's communication with man, despite 
the ribbed wall of mountain rising before him, or despite 
the deep trench dug out by ocean, despite the differences 
of race or color, despite the multitude of tongues, he be- 
held man united to man ; he beheld a ruler whose sceptre 
swayed the peoples of the earth from sea to sea and from 
the river to the ends of the earth. He saw the Cath- 
olicity of Christ's spouse The Church in its universality. 

It is then to this note of the Church that we would con- 

51 



V. SERMON. 

fine your attention. You will easily understand why we 
do so; we asked ourselves certain questions which we 
were to answer. Our first was; whether or not we stood 
in need of religion at all % And our answer to that ques- 
tion was; that we needed a Revealed Religion, a religion 
divine in its origin. We then inquired where that divine 
religion was to be found on this earth, and we established 
in reply the Divinity of the religion taught by Jesus 
Christ Our Lord. But since there were a number of 
churches who proposed to teach the religion of Christ, 
differing from each other in fundamental doctrines, we 
then asked: Which of these churches is the one to teach 
the true doctrine of Christ? Has this church no marks 
by which we may know it ? Will its truth with regard 
to God and my salvation be one thing in the East, and 
another in the West ? Or rather, did not Christ teach a 
doctrine which was one for all countries and for all peo- 
ples ? Seeing consistency in Christ's own teachings, we 
concluded, that since the Church was Christ's represen- 
tative on the world, it must be endowed with that same 
consistency, consequently, The Church must have for its 
first distinguishing mark the character of unity in its 
doctrines, unity in its profession of faith; that unity we 
found only in our own church. We again studied the 
character of Christ, and we found Him as a mere man, the 
most holy of men; we found Him teaching lessons of 
morality of which the sages of earth had never dreamed, 
and we again said that the true Church of Christ wher- 
ever it be, must reflect the sanctity and holiness of its 
founder. It must be holy in its teachings, it must be 
holy in its members; and we found this character of 
sanctity in the doctrines and in the lives of God's Saints 
in our own church. 

We come now to inquire for the third note or mark of 
the church. In order to do so we again study Christ as 
a teacher of the world, and we find that when He came to 
teach and to lead it back to Himself, He came to teach the 

52 



THE CATHOLICITY OF THE CHURCH. 

people; not of His own time or of His own country, but 
those of the world at large. He was to teach for all times 
and for all places; for His doctrines were saving truths 
and were to be applauded and practised by men through- 
out all time and throughout all space ; hence we conclude, 
that since Christ came to bring mankind back to Himself, 
that since the teachings were Catholic or Universal, so, 
too, to that Church which claims to represent Him upon 
this earth, must be affixed the seal of Catholicity. 

Where then is the church that is Catholic ? Catholic, 
as you all know, means Universal. The Church that subsists 
throughout all ages, teaches all nations and maintains 
all truth, that church is universal and it alone deserves 
to be called Catholic; for it alone is Catholic in time, be- 
cause it exists throughout all time ; in place, because it 
exists throughout all places ; in doctrine, because its truth 
is the same for the nineteenth century as for the first. Its 
truth is the same for the cold phlegmatic Northman as for 
the warm lively-spirited son of the South. Catholic in 
time — that is, it must have existed for all time. 

Now take up the history of the world, and we dare say, 
that if there be one fact which will astonish you more 
than another, it will be the fickleness of man. On the 
field of politics he will to-day cry out for the republic, 
and to-morrow he will quietly adopt the words and ac- 
tions of a monarchist. In literature, the idol of his wor- 
ship for a day will be the novelist, while on the morrow 
the much admired and the much respected man will be 
the historian. In philosophy he will follow for one mo- 
ment the dream of the idealist, and in the next he will 
become infatuated with the school of the realists ; thus in 
change after change, novelty after novelty, whim after 
whim, lies the drift of man's mind. Examine Science 
in its many phases and you will always find it fluctuating. 
Examine Art ; it is never stable, and the reason is, that 
man is ever changing and in consequence his works change 

53 



V. SERMON. 

with him, while Religion, coming from God, puts on 
the Immutability of God Himself, and shows to the world 
amid its changes, that it alone is unchangeable, because 
under the guidance, not of man, but of a Divine Power. 

Where then is the church that has subsisted through- 
out all time ? Summon the Jew and ask him if his reli- 
gion be that which subsists for all time; he must needs 
confess that with the destruction of his temple died the 
religion of his forefathers. Summon the Heretic; he 
will confess that his form of religion sprang into exist- 
ence but a few centuries ago, and that it was not known to 
the people of past ages. But summon a man known as 
a Catholic and he will tell you, that his is that religion 
which has subsisted from all ages, which was preached 
and taught to the world by Christ Himself ; nay more, he 
will go further, he will tell you how man in his fickle 
mood attempted to change and destroy in the course of 
ages his heavenly religion. Others whom you call to ask 
of their faith have to acknowledge defects. But if the 
Catholic, whom you now examine as to the stability of 
his religion throughout time, had to record but the con- 
tinual triumph of his faith, he will tell you of men in- 
spired with a hatred born of Hell itself; men whom, 
when they heard Christ our Lord speak of extending Has 
dominion over the entire world, took council among 
themselves how they might represent Him, ruin Him be- 
f or the world, and put Him to death. 

Death came to the founder, but His Religion was 
founded on a rock, upon whose base was written : " The 
gates of hell can never prevail against it." This short 
promise was its only strength, its only fortification. Man 
might rise against it, the world might rise, hell itself 
might take part against it, but still it was destined to 
subsist in virtue of that other positive promise : " Behold 
I am with you all the days, even to the consummation of 
the world." But as the world treated the Founder, the 
Master of that Holy Religion, so would it treat and so 

54 



THE CATHOLICITY OF THE CHURCH. 

did it treat His followers and disciples. The Catholic 
can tell you of an age of persecution during three hun- 
dred years that saw the sword unsheathed and wielded 
by the strong and powerful arm of the State. He can 
tell you how his forefathers sought refuge in the bowels 
of the earth, how they burrowed out temples there in 
order that they might worship and offer sacrifice to their 
own God without molestation. He can tell you of mar- 
tyrs without number, and finally of a triumph; he can 
tell you of a Kesurrection morning, which saw the Chris- 
tians rise from the Catacombs, conquerors of the world. 

But still the world was not quieted, its arms were not 
laid down; it had sought and obtained the power of the 
State, but it failed and acknowledged a defeat. Now it 
would make another form of attack; this time it would 
enlist upon its side children of the Church; it would en- 
list men of bright minds and of great name, taken from 
the very ranks of the Church itself, and make them do 
battle by corrupting the faith and teaching of the Church. 

We could tell you of an age of heresy ushered in by 
Arius, who dared to deny the Divinity of Christ. But at 
the same time we would depict a gathering of Bishops 
from all parts of the world, meeting in the city of Nice, 
and branding the heresy of Arius with an anathema and 
warning the people against the teaching of that arch-here- 
tic. The Council asserted the Divinity of Christ; Arius 
died, and Arianism disappeared from the world. Mace- 
donius arose and called into question the Divinity of the 
Holy Ghost, but in the city of Constantinople the Bishops 
of the Church convened and asserted as teachers of the 
world the Divinity of the Holy Ghost. Macedonius died, 
and the Macedonians, his followers, were known no more. 
Nestorious arose and impeached the maternity of the Vir- 
gin Mary as the Mother of God. But in the city of 
Ephesus, the Bishops of the World hold council with 
closed doors ; the people of the city gathered without, the 
declaration went forth that Mary is the 'Mother of God, 

55 



V. SERMON. 

and the people cheered with joy. Kestorious died and 
with him Nestorianism disappears from the world. Lu- 
ther arose, denied the doctrine of the Church, denied its 
Sacraments, denied its practices, and again the Bishops of 
the earth assembled and from the Fathers of Trent went 
forth a confirmation of all the doctrines of the Church, a 
confirmation of the Church's Sacraments and practices. 
Again the Church comes forth from the struggle, unsul- 
lied, unchangeable. Persecution did not destroy or even 
change a jot of her doctrine. In her conflict with Heresy 
she waxed strong, came forth from the conflict with her 
doctrines more explicit, and so set forth as to be unmis- 
takable by her enemies. 

But the world would not yet rest ; it had opposed Christ 
and must oppose Him to the end, and what could not be 
accomplished through persecution, or through straight- 
forward denial of doctrine, it would endeavor to do in a 
more insidious manner. It would declaim against those 
who maintained the Doctrines of the Church, The heretic 
world would not persecute them exactly, but it would 
cover itself with a mask of Christian Charity, and en- 
deavor to throw society into a state of indifference with 
regard to religion. They would tell us that all religions 
are good, that we might save our souls in all of them, 
that our own consciences were the judges of whether we 
should practice any or all of the forms of religion that 
were seen upon the earth; that there was no teacher who 
could say with authority what we were or what we were 
not to believe ; what we thought of God and our Salvation 
was a matter entirely in our own hands. The Church 
heard the flattering words that were spoken to her chil- 
dren, she knew that the mission of Christ upon this world 
was to teach men what they were to do, she knew that 
she was His representative, and in consequence that it was 
her duty to assert herself as the teacher of mankind. 
Again, and but a few years ago, the world witnessed the 
Bishops assembling in the hall of the Vatican around the 

56 



THE CATHOLICITY OP THE CHURCH. 

saintly Pius, and declaring in words clear and explicit, 
that the world was not without an infallible Voice, an 
Infallible Instructor in matters appertaining to faith and 
morals. That Instructor was none other than the suc- 
cessor of Christ our Lord, the Bishop of Rome, the Pope 
of the Church. 

The Catholic of to-day can tell you, that his church 
has passed through struggles which would have crushed 
out of existence any society of human origin, but which 
only served to strengthen The Church, because it was of 
God. Verily does it count its years by ages for " Thou 
art with it till the consummation of time." Thus then 
the Church subsisted through the ages of the past, despite 
the world's attack against it, and thus may we assert that 
she will subsist until the end of the world. The world 
may do its utmost, it can but repeat its manner of attack ; 
the history of The Church's past, is the surest guarantee 
of the future. 

But The Church must not only exist throughout all 
time, it must also be Catholic in place in order that it 
may teach all nations ; for the Commission which Christ 
gave to his followers was to carry out his work, namely, 
to teach all nations. Xow, where is the church which has 
shown itself to every part of the known world ? Where 
is the church whose voice has been heard throughout every 
part of the habitable globe ? Where is the church which 
proposes to have the power and authority to teach the 
world ? And where is the church in fact uniting all na- 
tions in one, so that the Psalmist might sing of her : " He 
shall rule from sea to sea and from the river unto the 
end of the earth ! " Summon the Jew again, ask him 
if his religion was known to the uttermost limits of the 
earth, and he will be obliged to tell you that it was na- 
tional in its character, and that it never extended beyond 
the Jewish people. It had not the character of Cath- 
olicity. Summon the follower of Mahommet, and he too 
will tell you that his religion was confined to a portion 

57 



V. SERMON. 

of the earth. Summon the Heretic and he will tell you 
that the most his church could accomplish was to set it- 
self up in a kingdom. Heresies in their innumerable 
forms could only lay claim to a single town or hamlet, and 
that but for a few short years. But again cite the man 
known to you as a Catholic to appear and ask him of his 
church; What glorious triumphs he has to record. He 
will tell you that wherever walked the foot of man upon 
the globe, there stood a Priest of my religion at his side. 
Whether in the barren icy regions of the Poles or the 
parched regions of the Equator, there stood the Catholic 
Missionary, bearing aloft the Cross of Christ, and pouring 
upon the children of God the cleansing waters of regenera- 
tion. 

But a century after the Ascension of Christ St. Justin 
could write, that there was no race of men, whether Bar- 
barian or Greek or any other people of what name soever 
among whom the name of Jesus Christ was not invoked. 
Later on Tertullian in his Apology could tell the persecu- 
tors of his faith in bold languages that they would be sur- 
prised at the immensity of their loss if the Christians were 
withdrawn from them. His words are so powerful in 
showing at this time the spread of the church that they 
must needs be quoted : " We are accused of not honor- 
ing the Emperor by sacrifice, it is true we do not offer 
victims, but we pray to the one true God for the salvation 
of our Princes. We respect them, but we cannot per- 
jure our souls calling our ruler God we are 

frequently stoned by the enraged populace, our homes are 
burned, and in the wild frenzy of the bacchanals, even our 
sacred dead are not spared, but are dragged from the tomb 
and torn to pieces. How have we avenged ourselves for 
all these wrongs? If we desired to make war against 
you, have we not hosts of Christian soldiers ? We are 
comparatively but of yesterday, yet already we fill your 
villages, castles, boroughs and fields; we are found in the 
senate and public places; nothing remains to you but 

58 



THE CATHOLICITY OF THE CHURCH. 

your temples. Could we not even war with unequal 
forces, we who fear not the most excruciating torments; 
it being one of our precepts to suffer death rather than 
inflict it ? We might be revenged by withdrawing en- 
tirely from the empire, and you would then be astonished 
at the immensity of your loss." 

The Faith had gained over Europe, Asia and Africa, 
but still there were places beyond the pale of the empire. 
These too must be brought into the one fold, so that the 
prophecy of the inspired Psalmist might be fulfilled w T hen 
he sang : " All the ends of the earth shall be converted 
to the Lord, and all the kindreds of the Gentiles shall 
adore in His sight. For the kingdom is the Lord's, and 
He shall have dominion over the nations." To the north 
of the Roman Empire dwelt the Franks, a warlike people. 
Time and again they sought to conquer Gaul, and at 
last obtained the victory led on by Clovis their chief. 
Ten years after, St. Eemigius was heard addressing the 
princely Frank in the following words : " Humble thy- 
self, proud Sicambrian, burn now the idols thou didst 
formerly adore, and adore henceforth what thou didst 
formerly burn." On that day Clovis with three thousand 
mail-clad warriors received Baptism. From that Christ- 
mas dates the conversion of the French nation, who have 
ever since remained faithful to the Church. 

But beyond the sea dwelt a people destined, it would 
appear from their later history, to be the chosen people 
of God in spreading His religion upon the world. To 
them Christ had not yet been preached. But Patrick 
arose and resolved to preach to them. He met the Druid 
priests, explained to them the faith, and saw the conver- 
sion of the people follow. Up and down for thirty-two 
years the saint wanders throughout that island ; and when 
at last death called him to receive the reward of his labors, 
he left upon the field of his mission no less than three 
hundred and fifty-five churches. Still more he left The 
Faith imbedded in breasts that would never forswear it, 

59 



V. SERMON. 

he left it in the hands of those from whom it could never 
be wrenched, he left it in the hands of a people who could 
cry out with St. Paul ; " For I am sure that neither life 
nor death, nor persecution, nor Angels, nor Principali- 
ties, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 
nor might nor height nor depth, nor any other creature, 
shall be able to separate me from the love of my God, 
which is in Jesus Christ Our Lord." He left it in the 
hands of a people whose Nationality formed an alliance 
with their Religion; so that a writer of to-day, speaking 
of Ireland's reception of Christianity says ; " Centuries 
have perpetuated the alliance of Catholicity and Ireland. 
Revolutions have failed to shake it, persecution has not 
broken it; it has gained strength in blood and tears, and 
we may believe after thirteen centuries of trial, that the 
Roman faith will disappear only with the name of Patrick 
and the last Irishman." 

Close by, shut in by the darkness of superstition, slept 
a sister island. Augustine with forty laborers gives Eng- 
land to the Church. The good work goes on, and for 
centuries does it remain faithful. It fell from the high 
position it had gained in the hierarchy, but its fall was 
not without its martyrs ; their blood fructified, and Eng- 
land is again destined in the providence of God to share 
in the Communion of the faithful upon this world. So 
went on the conversion of the world. The Church fol- 
lowed man wherever he was to be found, followed him 
through her missionaries, followed him in the person of 
a Xavier in India and Japan, until she could count 
therein no less than three million of her children; fol- 
lowed them, when this world was discovered, in her re- 
ligious orders, the Franciscans, the Dominicans, and the 
Jesuits; followed them braving the deep snows of the 
North, the burning sands of the South ; followed them 
until she saw the Cross erected wherever man was found 
to adore. 

Thus do we find The Church subsisting throughoixt 

60 



THE CATHOLICITY OF THE CHURCH. 

time and existing among all nations. But she has still 
another glory, that of maintaining all truth ; She is Cath- 
olic in her teachings to-day, holding the same doctrines, 
the same truths, she taught from the beginning. It is 
needless for us to attempt to demonstrate this; to do so 
we would have to go over the same ground, to take you 
through her Councils, and give you her words as she dog- 
matically defined each truth against the heresies that 
arose. There is only one fact which we need mention 
to establish this truth, and that is : that The Church when- 
ever she is brought in collision with the world, is brought 
into that collision because she will not deign to change. 
The world goes on, increases in scientific and other human 
knowledge, and expects The Church to move on with her, 
to change as she does, to grow liberal as she does, not to 
be haunting us with her doctrines of future punishment 
and of self-denial while on earth. The worldling would 
enjoy the ease and comfort the world can now afford ; but 
The Church breaks in upon that comfort and ease which 
modern improvements furnish, and tells us the old, old 
truth of the Gospel : " He who would come after me, 
let him deny himself daily, take up his cross and follow 
Me." Such is the reason of the hatred of the world for 
the Church, because she will not cry out : " fall in with 
the world, fall in and enjoy its luxuries." The Church 
true to her mission has received truths from God, and as 
they were meant for men of the first century, so were 
they meant for men of the Nineteenth, and the Church 
must needs repeat them. The Church then, of which we 
are members, is the only Church that can lay claim to 
that Catholicity, which must be found in the True 
Church; for she alone is Catholic in time, Catholic in 
place, Catholic in Doctrine. 

Are we her faithful children? Are we furthering or 
retarding her mission ? Are we aiding in spreading the 
faith of Christ, or are we rather stumbling blocks to 
many who would be of us if we did not scandalize them 

61 



V. SERMON. 

by our lives? You are Catholics, and as Catholics you 
have a mission in the world, you must cherish the Cath- 
olic faith in your families, in your homes, and impart it 
to others. You may not be called upon to preach this 
faith publicly and in words, but remember that your lives 
must be the lives of Catholics, that you must show to the 
world by your example, that you are not only Catholics in 
faith but Catholics in practice. Ask yourselves this ques- 
tion, you young men who bear the seal of Baptism on 
your hearts, and the character of Confirmation upon your 
souls, ask yourselves if you are really soldiers of Jesus 
Christ, if you are really soldiers of His Church. Ask 
yourselves, you who loiter upon corners, who spend the 
Sunday in drinking houses, who shrink from the Church 
as though it were a pest-house, who keep from the Sacra- 
ments as though you had no faith, ask yourselves what 
must be the effect of your lives upon your associates, and 
those who surround you. Ask yourselves, you young 
ladies, you who are ever fond of the changing fashions, 
you who are ever wont to be seen in public places of amuse- 
ment, who are wont to mix and form life contracts with 
those who differ from you in religion, ask yourselves if 
you are true daughters of Christ, if you are true children 
of His Holy Church, if you are to be true mothers who 
must bring up generations yet unborn in the Faith of the 
Catholic Church. And you, too, Catholic parents, you 
whose first duty it is to look after your children, to bring 
them up with a knowledge of their Holy Religion, to show 
them from the time of birth a good example, you who 
never ask your children where they spend their evenings, 
who leave for them a door unbarred and unlocked till the 
small hours of morning, who allow them to make choice 
of their own company, be it good or bad. Do you ask 
yourselves if you be fulfilling the mission of Catholic 
parents, ask yourselves if you act in dealing with your 
children as though you were authorized to represent God's 
own authority over them ? Yes, let us all ask ourselves 

62 



THE CATHOLICITY OF THE CHURCH. 

the question : Are we true Catholics ? If not, Christ our 
Lord may say to us as He said to the cities of Coro- 
zain and Bethsaida who had seen His works : " Woe to 
thee, Corozain, woe to thee, Bethsaida, for if in Tyre and 
Sidon had been wrought the mighty works that have been 
wrought in you, they would have clone penance long ago 
in sackcloth and in ashes; but it shall be more tolerable 
for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you." 



63 



VI. SERMON. 
THE CHURCH APOSTOLIC. 



44 Built on the foundation of the 

Apostles and the Prophets. 

Eph. ii. 20. 



Is there anyone of us who would not like to be a mem- 
ber of the temple of God, that temple framed by the Holy 
Spirit upon this earth, and whose inmates are here spoken 
of so beautifully by the Apostle St. Paul? In that tem- 
ple none are strangers, none are foreigners ; all are fel- 
low citizens possessing the same rights, enjoying the same 
privileges, battling for the same cause, the salvation of 
our souls, and expecting the same reward; life everlast- 
ing with the Saints and domestics of God. Without 
doubt there is no man who would not wish to be found 
numbered in that society where all are brothers, where 
there are no rivalries or contentions, whereon the. peace 
of God rests because it is the habitation of the Holy 
Spirit. 

But where shall we find that society ? Does the Apos- 
tle give us any sign by which we may know it ? Does he 
tell us of any mark distinguishing it from the numberless 
societies we find upon the earth ? For, if we look abroad, 
we shall find communities without number professing to 
be habitations of the Spirit, professing to be fellow citi- 
zens with the Saints and the domestics of God, profess- 

64 



THE CHURCH APOSTOLIC. 

ing to be of His household. But in order that we might 
not be deceived, St. Paul was careful to enter into par- 
ticulars with regard to that temple, planned for us, that 
building, so to speak; and tells us of a distinctive mark 
by which we may or should know it. It was built " upon 
the foundation of the Apostles and the prophets, Jesus 
Christ Himself being the chief corner stone." Such then 
is the mark, the note by which we are to recognize this 
temple. If our Church then can establish that she has 
existed from the time of the Apostles, that her teachers 
are the successors of the Apostles, our Church alone can 
lay claim to the title of Apostolic. Let us then, examine 
this claim of our Church, whether or not it be founded 
upon the Apostles, and at the same time let us investigate 
whether those who differ from us have any right what- 
ever to that title. 

What do we mean by the Church Apostolic ? We must 
mean that Church which teaches the identical Doctrine 
once delivered by the Apostles, and whose Ministers de- 
rive their power from the Apostles by an uninterrupted 
succession ; that Church alone can take the title of Apos- 
tolic; for it alone is Apostolic in its Faith, Apostolic in 
its Sacraments, Apostolic in its Priesthood. When our 
Blessed Lord wished to establish His Church, He selected 
from the world twelve poor fishermen whom He Himself 
taught for three years, teaching them the truths they were 
to transmit to the world. They were not men of learning, 
but they were men who when the time came for His depar- 
ture from them, would be filled with the Holy Ghost, the 
spirit of wisdom ; men who recognized their position, w T ho 
understood that to them was left the legacy of truth which 
should be handed down to the remotest times. In accord- 
ance with the commission to go and teach all nations they 
separate, and begin to teach in the then known countries 
of the world. St. James remains in Jerusalem, St. John 
goes to Ephesus and founds churches throughout Asia 
Minor. St. Andrew betakes himself to Scythia, St. 
5 65 



VI. SERMON. 

Thomas journeys to the Indies, while St. Philip preaches 
throughout upper Asia. St. Bartholomew teaches the 
Armenians, St. Matthew the inhabitants of Ethiopia, St. 
Simon the Persians, St. James the Arabians, while Mat- 
thias who had been chosen to fill the place of the traitor, 
Judas, passed to Africa. St. Paul who was not one of 
the original twelve, but who deserved to be styled an 
Apostle, brings over millions to the faith of Christ; St. 
Peter, the chief of the Apostles, the vicegerent of Christ, 
after having preached to the Jews who were scattered 
throughout Pontus, Galatia and Cappadocia, after having 
taught the faith in Antioch for seven years, goes and 
claims admission to the City of Rome, the centre of Pa- 
ganism, the home of vice and corruption, the abode of sin 
and iniquity. He goes there and claims for himself and 
obtains the throne of the Cresars. In that place where 
Paganism had dw T elt, Christianity finds its home; from 
that place w T hence brute force had issued and conquered 
the surrounding nations, from it the meekness and the 
justice of Christ were henceforth to go forth and subdue 
the entire world. 

Behold the marvellous beginning of this Kingdom and 
mark how it was founded ; founded upon the Apostles, 
with Christ as the corner-stone, for upon Him and upon 
His divinity did they build up their faith and practice. 
He was the subject of their preaching, the model of those 
who wished to become Christians. What was then to be- 
come of the saving doctrines entrusted to them by Christ ? 
Were these truths to pass from earth with the men who 
taught them ? No ! Their successors were to take up the 
same truths and put them before the people with the same 
authority as the Apostles did. No one will deny that 
the Apostles had authority to teach, and that their teach- 
ing was binding on the faithful, that it was not to be 
discussed, but to be received as coming from God Him- 
self. All will readily admit this, and here it is that we 
begin to touch upon the Doctrine of the Apostles, and to 

66 



THE CHURCH APOSTOLIC. 

see the conformity of our Church's teachings with them. 
All will easily and readily admit that St. Paul was not 
with The Twelve when they were commissioned to teach 
the word. True, he was divinely chosen, but yet he was 
not of their number; still, hear with what authority he 
puts the truth before his people the Galatians. " Though 
an angel from heaven preach a gospel to you beside that 
which we have preached to you, let him be Anathema." 
And again, writing to Timothy he says : " The things 
which thou hast heard from me before many witnesses, 
the same commend to faithful men to teach others also." 
And writing to the faithful he says : " When you had 
received from us the word of God, you received it not 
as the word of men, but as it is in deed the word of God." 

Behold a teacher making known its truths with author- 
ity, and with an authority which should be respected 
and could not be questioned. And to-day, when we look 
at this Apostolic truth, when we look for a people to 
whom might be addressed the words of St. Paul, that 
they regard the words of their Bishops, not as the words 
of men, but as the words of God. When we look for a 
body of teachers who profess to teach as did Paul, tell- 
ing their people that though they should see an angel 
descending from Heaven and hear him teaching a differ- 
ent doctrine, they were not to waver in their faith, they 
were not to believe him, but rather they were to regard 
him as accursed in the sight of God. When we look for 
this Apostolic truth which is no other than that of the 
Infallibility of the teaching body, we shall find it no- 
where but in the One, Holy, and Apostolic Church. 
There alone shall we find a body teaching with Author- 
ity, and there alone find a people respectfully submit- 
ting. 

Another great truth insisted upon by the Apostles, was ; 
that the ministers and preachers of the gospel should be 
ordained and sent to preach. They had heard the words 
from Christ Himself: " As the Father hath sent me so 

67 



VI. SERMON. 

I send you/' and hence it was that St. Paul could boldly 
ask : " How can they preach unless they be sent/' and 
that on another occasion he could say : " Neither doth 
any man take the honor to himself, but he that is called 
by God as Aaron was." The office of preaching the gos- 
pel was not one that might be regarded as worldly, as a 
business that you might assume to-day and give up to- 
morrow to find something more lucrative; as a position 
that might be taken up at mere caprice and abandoned in 
the same fickle manner. It was a duty to which God 
called favored souls, as he did Aaron; a duty to which 
they should be appointed by proper authority, and or- 
dained and commissioned to carry out by legitimate 
powers. Hence it is that we read that Paul and Bar- 
nabas had ordained for them Priests in every church. 
And in the epistle to Titus we read : " For this cause I 
left thee in Crete, that thou shouldst ordain priests in 
every city, as I also appointed thee." 

A most striking illustration of the necessity of being 
sent to preach the gospel is offered in the life of St. Paul 
himself. You know something of his life! He was a 
learned man, but a man opposed to the Christians; he 
was the man who stood by at the death of the first Chris- 
tian martyr, St. Stephen; he was the man who sought 
from the High Priest power to apprehend, and bring 
bound in chains to Jerusalem, those who professed them- 
selves followers of Christ in Damascus. The permission 
is given, letters are drawn up and he sets out for the city ; 
suddenly he is struck down on the road by a blinding 
flash of light, and hears a voice asking: " Saul, Saul, 
why dost thou persecute me," and he answered, " Who art 
thou Lord ? " The voice replied : " I am Jesus whom 
thou dost persecute," and he trembling and astonished 
said: "Lord what wilt thou have me do?" He was 
bidden to rise and go into the city, and it would be there 
told to him, what he should do. Those who accompanied 
him raised him from the earth, found him deprived of 

68 



THE CHURCH APOSTOLIC. 

sight, and they led him into the city where he was bap- 
tized by Annanias. He regained his sight and, being filled 
with the Holy Ghost, to the consternation of the Jews, he 
began to preach the Crucified One. But strange to re- 
late that great Apostle of the Gentiles who had been called 
to a knowledge of the faith, and who had been so mira- 
culously converted, allowed the Apostles to impose hands 
upon him, and thus commission him to preach the great 
truths taught by Christ Himself. 

If we again ask for the Apostolic truth and practise 
of Ordaining and Commissioning men to preach, where 
shall we find it more firmly established, more faithfully 
carried out, than in our own Holy Church. Here when 
a young man offers himself for the ministry, he is not 
immediately received. A time of probation is allotted 
him, he is told to quit his parents and friends, to go into 
the seminary to remain there for years. Each year as it 
goes fty must testify to his superiors by his walk and 
conversation that he is really called by God as Aaron 
was; if it is found during his time of trial, that he is not 
fit to be called, then he must not venture to usurp the 
office. Years go by, the morning of his Ordination ar- 
rives, that morning when he is to receive The Command 
as direct as though it came from the lips of Christ Him- 
self. He stands before the Bishop who asks from the 
Arch-Priest whether he knows this candidate to be a fit 
subject for the ministry. The answer is given, that so 
far as human knowledge goes, he may safely predict that 
he is worthy of being raised to the high dignity of the 
Priesthood. He is then told of his duty as a Disciple of 
Christ, a duty not of a month or a year, but a life duty. 
He is told that he is to offer sacrifice, to preach and to 
baptize; that his doctrine must be the nourishment of 
God's people, that the odor of his life must be the sweet- 
ness of Christ's church ; that by his example and by his 
preaching he must aid in building up God's temple in 
such a manner, that those who have appointed him, and 

69 



VI. SERMON. 

that he who has taken upon himself this office may not 
be condemned on the last day, for the abuse of the gifts 
entrusted to him, but may rather merit an eternal reward 
from Him whose work he is about to undertake. Such 
are the solemn words the church addresses to her Minis- 
ter when presenting himself for Ordination. Words 
which should make the stoutest human heart reflect and 
involuntarily draw back, as it considers the weighty re- 
sponsibility it is about to assume, were it not that the 
virtue of hope takes possession of the soul, and the 
whispering of God's Holy Spirit is heard promising the 
assistance which divine grace brings to the weakness of 
man. " I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth 
me." 

It would be most interesting to take up and examine 
each of the doctrines of the Church as taught by the 
Church to-day, and show their identity with apostolic 
teachings ; and not only the doctrines, but the practices of 
the church. But in establishing the fact that the Church 
of the Apostles was a teaching church, endowed with the 
divine attribute of Infallibility, we have established that 
The Church which to-day proclaims itself a teacher and 
moreover asserts its Infallibility, is that identical church ; 
its Priesthood is the same, and has come down to us un- 
interruptedly from the time of the Apostles. 

Are then the Bishop, and Priests of the Catholic Church 
the successors of the Apostles? In other words is the 
Church Apostolic in its priesthood ? Are its ministers the 
legal successors of the original twelve chosen by Christ 
to carry the truth of His divinity to the world ? Ask the 
Infidel if he is not satisfied that the Ministers of the Cath- 
olic Church to-day succeed directly to the teachers sent 
to the world by our Blessed Lord, and he will be obliged 
to confess that in his course of reading, he has been led 
to that conclusion ; and that if he were to become a Chris- 
tian, he must needs be Catholic. Ask the Heretic, and 
he must admit that we have the succession, though he 

70 



THE CHURCH APOSTOLIC. 

dissents from our doctrine; for he will say: though you 
have the succession, you have erred in teaching. He 
forgets that St. Paul believed in the assistance of the 
Holy Spirit, who was to remain with the Church to 
teach all truth, and save it from lapsing into error 
" Though an Angel from Heaven preach a gospel to you 
beside that which we have preached to you let him be 
anathema." 

And, they must of necessity admit that The Church is 
Apostolic in her Priesthood if history is not to be rele- 
gated to the regions of fiction ; for, opening that chronicle 
of time, you will read of a man reigning in the city of 
Rome, styling himself the lawful successor of St. Peter, 
the vicegerent of Jesus Christ upon earth, and appealing 
to the testimony of nineteen centuries in proof of his claim 
and position. If you call on the centuries of the past 
to bear witness to the fact, you will find a chain of Pon- 
tiffs from the days of Peter to the days of Leo ; a line of 
Popes numbering over two hundred; a chain whose links 
bind the centuries together. The succession of no line 
of Kings, of no line of worldly potentates is so well es- 
tablished as that of the succession to the See of Peter. 
And when we come to consider that the chair of Peter is 
a throne ever kept before the eyes of the world, because 
he who possesses it claims to govern the world spiritually, 
and that therefore the world is interested in him who oc- 
cupies the position, then it is that our proof grows 
stronger, and we can easily understand, how few there are 
who have attempted to call in question, the legitimate 
succession of the Roman Pontiffs. If the Roman See has 
always claimed the right of governing the world, as it 
has, then the eyes of the world must have necessarily been 
turned to that See in a spirit of love, or in a spirit of 
hatred; at all events, turned they were, watchfully, criti- 
cally, and by our enemies; and if the line had ever been 
broken, that truth would have been boldly thrust in our 
faces and written in characters unmistakable to the young- 

71 



VI. SERMON. 

est aspirant of our creed. On the contrary, the succes- 
sion was uninterrupted though the world sought to an- 
nihilate it. 

You know of the death of the first Pope, St. Peter, 
who, like his master, was put to death, martyred for the 
faith. Would others ascend that throne, take up a crown 
sure to be drenched in the blood of the possessor % Yes, 
and for three hundred years men for whom the world had 
no terrors, which could make them forego their faith ; or 
promises which could flatter and w T in them over to be the 
world's champions; men like these took up the sceptre 
entrusted to Peter, though they knew that death awaited 
them at the hands of their persecutors. After the storm 
came a calm, and the Popes governed for succeeding ages, 
and were allowed to rule their children. So just was 
their administration that after a few centuries had gone 
by, nations turned to them as children to a Father, when 
their rights were endangered, and placed in their hands 
the balance of power that in the present state of affairs 
in Europe, is placed in the hands of an army numbering 
millions. 

IsTor could this state of affairs be called a perfect calm, 
for the Church had its periods of trouble, its conflicts 
with the mighty ones of earth who hated it, who would 
destroy it w T ere they able. In after years it struggled 
through the hatred borne it by worldly powers ; again 
and again did it struggle through the invasion of its every 
right; but a new mode of attack, a new kind of warfare 
was now carried on. " The world could not destroy that 
line of kings, founded on the Apostles and upon Christ, 
in any way that it had yet tried ; it would now at the 
period of the Reformation, question the faith which was 
taught, and deny the many revealed doctrines. To for- 
ward its attack it would usurp the place of the Church, 
assert itself the teacher of Christ, place before the people 
some of the old truths, the Divinity of Christ, the Trinity 
and Unity of God and hold out to them a religion easy in 

72 



THE CHURCH APOSTOLIC. 

practice, and convenient in principle. In this way it 
would gain over souls to the new kingdom, weaken the 
faith of men in the Vicar of Christ by perversion, and 
thus destroy that kingdom. 

You know of its success; the world for the last three 
hundred years, outside of the Catholic Church, knows 
not what to believe ; it has become skeptical and indiffer- 
ent ; its arms have been turned against itself ; the reign of 
justice and of public honesty is supplanted by the reign 
of human opinion and private conveniency. But during 
that struggle what became of the succession of Apostle to 
Apostle? Unflinchingly as before the voice was heard, 
condemning the voice of error, and its tongue ever main- 
tained the right of Christ's supremacy in the world. The 
succession still remained; it is true a cloud passed over 
it and the world was at one time divided in its allegiance, 
but still the principle existed, and is to-day vested in our 
glorious reigning Pontiff, who might be said to have 
lived the life of Martyr, Confessor, and Pope upon this 
world. 

Verily the promise given by Christ has been kept. 
" Behold I am with you all days, even to the consumma- 
tion of the world." Verily the finger of God is here. Is 
there to-day another religion which can trace a succes- 
sion from the days of the Apostles like that seen in the 
Bishops of Home ? And if that succession be unbroken, 
as it is, then we say that the succession of the Priest re- 
motest from that chair, no matter what may be the extent 
of his parish or the poverty of his people, that priest is 
rich in the knowledge that he is her follower, that he 
succeeds to teachers chosen by Christ as long as he remains 
loyal to the teachings of Rome ; for within that city Peter 
rules, and holds the primacy of jurisdiction in the person 
of the Pope, who has sent that Priest through his Bishop to 
preach, and teach the word of Christ. 

Is there then, we would ask again, another religion 
upon the face of God's earth, with credentials more se- 

73 



VI. SERMON. 

cure than that of the Catholic? Ask them, for we have a 
right to question them; ask all others to show their suc- 
cession from the Apostles. To the Lutheran you may 
say, for fifteen hundred years you were unknown to the 
world, then for the first time, your voice was heard speak- 
ing through an unfrocked monk, upon a square in Witten- 
berg. To the Anglican you may say, for fifteen hundred 
years you were unknown ; then for the first time your 
voice was heard speaking through Henry VIII, King of 
England, who because he w T as not petted in his whims as 
a school boy, declared himself a Dissenter, and the Pope 
of the church of England. Thus might we address the 
hundred and one sects that surround us. Not one can 
claim to be from the Apostles and say that their church is 
the kingdom of Christ, founded upon the Apostles, with 
Christ as the corner stone. To us alone belongs the 
possession of Apostolic Faith, guarded for us by the Apos- 
tolic Priesthood, whose presence we enjoy. Should we 
not then thank God daily for being numbered among His 
faithful children ; should we not thank Him for the great 
favor of having been born in that One True Church. 
While thanking Him for this precious gift, let us not be 
unmindful of those who are not of us ; pray that to them 
may be given the Faith, pray that their understanding 
may be enlightened to see the way of the Lord upon this 
earth, and that their hearts may be led to embrace the 
truth which is found only in That Church governed and 
directed by the Holy Ghost. 

We would say, in conclusion, that we must never for- 
get that we are Catholics, that we are members of that 
Apostolic Church, and that in consequence our lives 
should be like those of the Early Christians in whose 
midst the Apostles moved. When reading some of the 
epistles one is struck with the words of commendation that 
are there written by St. Paul to the different churches, 
and the Minister of the Gospel is forced to ask himself, 
could I if writing to the people of to-day placed under 

74 



THE CHURCH APOSTOLIC. 

my charge, congratulate them and say that they were 
leading the lives of Christians; could I address them in 
the words of St. Paul? A feeling of sadness is the only 
answer ; a feeling of sadness that tells plainly that though 
he labors in season and out of season for the good of his 
people, and for their salvation; still there are some who 
never come within sound of his voice; some who are 
leading practically the lives of Infidels. He sees a marked 
difference between the majority of Catholics to-day and 
the majority of Catholics in primitive times, and he is 
forced to deduce from those writings another conclusion. 
Does it not surprise us, when we hear of the rapid spread 
of Christianity in the first age of the Church. Scarcely 
had the Apostles spoken when the world was converted 
from Paganism, that easy life, to the hard and sober 
life of a Christian. What was the cause of this ? Many 
might be assigned, but to our mind there was a very 
powerful one: it was the life of example led by the first 
Christians; each one considered himself an apostle, knew 
that he possessed the truth, not for himself alone, but for 
the World, it was the legacy of Christ not given to him 
personally, but given for all mankind; this thought en- 
tered into their actions, and thus the Christian became 
another Christ in the eyes of the world, and thus by the 
preaching of the Apostles and by the example of the lives 
of the faithful the world became Christianized, became 
Catholic. 

To-day we have the reverse of the picture. We live 
as did the first Christians in the midst of unbelievers. 
We possess the same advantages for living good lives that 
they did, and yet what are our lives, to those who are 
not of us ? In many cases a stumbling block, a scandal. 
Par from being friends of the Church, we are its enemies. 
Though in it, we are not of it, for we are not working 
for its interests nor the interests of Christ! Nor does 
the scandal stop here. It goes farther. It does not alone 
keep others from belonging to us, but it is a means of 

75 



VI. SERMON. 

perversion. The scandal given by parents is but too often 
the perversion of the children. Surely then recognizing 
our position as those to whom Christ has given all truth, 
we will resolve upon a change of life that will procure 
for ourselves Eternal Salvation and lead others into the 
one true fold of Jesus Christ. 



76 



VII. SERMON. 
CHRISTMAS DAY. 



" Behold I bring you tidings of great joy ." 

Luke ii. 10, 



These are many days in the world's history set aside 
for the commemoration of some great event. ^Every na- 
tion has its hero whom it loves to honor; there exists no 
country which cannot name at least one who has sacri- 
ficed all, even life itself, to its interests. Looking 
through the Church's Calendar we find Feast Days set 
apart to commemorate the lives of her children. To-day 
she names that of a Virgin, to-morrow of a Martyr, or 
again that of a Confessor, Pontiff or Doctor, as days of 
higher import and of greater significance, she tells you 
of the Feast of the Blessed Virgin the Mother of God, 
and finally of that of our Blessed Lord. 

But among them all there is none upon which we com- 
memorate a greater than that of the present, for to-day 
we celebrate a festival which is not local but universal, 
which is full of importance, not for the few but for all; 
one which told upon the world for the four thousand 
years preceding it, and has affected the entire universe 
since. An event which marks the central point of our 
world's history, in that it is the Incarnation of God, 
the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Well 
might the Angel say to the shepherds " Behold I bring 

77 



VII. SERMON. 

you tidings of great joy." Tidings of great joy, be- 
cause that is come to pass which will change the whole 
face of society; good tidings, because that is to happen 
which will shed peace upon the world and reconcile it 
with its God. 

You have perhaps some idea of the world prior to 
Christ's advent. Nations existed then as they do to- 
day, but they differed in their structure and polity from 
those of our time. They might be likened to vast pyra- 
mids, gigantic but immovable. They were incapable of 
advancement. As an example of this we need but 
glance at the condition of the Roman Empire when 
Christ came into the world. She had nothing more to 
conquer, she stood at the height of her glory; yet behind 
all this magnificence lay an enemy whom her arms could 
not cope with, and which even she could not conquer. 
Throughout that vast domain immorality prevailed, mod- 
esty which lends such sweet charms to virtue had van- 
ished. Man, God's greatest work, knew Him not, and 
became the slave of every passion. A sad and sicken- 
ing sight it was to see a people rich in culture, possessing 
poets, philosophers, orators, historians, who have had no 
equals worshipping at the shrine of licentiousness. The 
true idea of the dignity of man was unknown. Men 
were belittled, the state idolized, society absorbed the in- 
dividual; if he attempted to maintain his rights he was 
crushed by an iron heel. He regarded himself, not as a 
freeman whom his country was bound to protect, but 
rather as its servant, who should be ready at any moment 
for sacrifice upon its altar. So too with the family. 
Its principal element, the fond wife, the loving mother, 
was but the mere servant of the man, subject to his 
whims, and at the mercy of his will and passions. To- 
day possessing all the happiness she could desire, sitting 
at the table as the partner of his joys, she might on the 
morrow be driven from his roof among the lowest of 
menials. In consequence, the education of her children 

78 



CHRISTMAS DAY. 

was neglected, they never received the lessons which only 
a mother can instil into the minds of her offspring. As 
with the individual and with the family, so with society. 
Contemplate the scene for a moment. Society loomed 
up before us giant-like in its physical strength, and king- 
like in its external grandeur; but alas, thousands, nay 
millions of human beings were condemned to the un- 
happy state of slavery. This system was spread over 
the entire world. The smallest hamlet and the largest 
city had its quota, every family of social importance had 
its hundreds of those degraded beings, while over them 
the stern master exercised the right of life and death. 
Surely the world must have groaned under these griev- 
ances, and asked for some means to free it from this 
degrading custom; but what power could effect that re- 
sult ? Not its religion, which was paganism and deified 
vice; not law, for they were a Godless people, listening 
to the promptings of passion and stifling the conscience. 
Whence then could come a power to protect the weak 
from the strong, to soften the hardness of human nature, 
to succor the unfortunate; whence a power to fill the 
mind and heart with principles of morality and high 
sentiments of honor, to so affect the public mind and 
heart, that men would never dare to make open profes- 
sion, or triumphantly boast of their shameful excesses. 
Whence the power to make the household the abode of 
devoted love, to restrain the ruler's encroachment on 
the subject's liberty. It must come from one source 
alone. Plato was right and reasoned well, when some 
four hundred centuries before the Christian era, dis- 
gusted with the state of Society and seeking for a 
remedy, he exclaimed that the power, the remedy, which 
should purge society of vices must come from above. 
And the power came, came from heaven. God, visibly 
weak but invisibly strong, came to the world's assist- 
ance. 

From the crib which we gather about in spirit, shall 

79 



VII. SERMON. 

go forth the power destined to change the aspect of the 
world; a new civilization, which was to supplant the old, 
and to endure forever. This is one of the events which 
we commemorate to-day: the birth of a new society, the 
birth of a new civilization and of a new generation. Call 
one of the Senators of the Roman Empire, bid him 
enter that stable and gaze upon the child in its poverty 
and coarse swaddling clothes; tell him that there lies in 
this neglected spot, the child-king who is to rule the 
world; he will laugh at you. Tell him that this is the 
child-king who is to change the face of society, its cus- 
toms, its laws, and he will treat you as a mad man. Tell 
him this is the child-king whose palace is a stable, and 
a manger His throne, whose only retinue is Mary and 
Joseph, but that a day will come when His palace will be 
of the richest architecture, where the fine arts will as- 
semble and exhaust their fancy to decorate His home. 
Tell the Roman prince that this infant will erect His 
throne in the hearts of the people, that there will this 
child-king be enshrined for all eternity, and that His 
retinue of Joseph and Mary and a few shepherds, will 
swell into millions, filling the world and coming down 
through centuries, he will treat you as a fool. Yet all 
this has been accomplished. His palaces have multi- 
plied, His throne is in the hearts of the people, and His 
retinue has filled the world. The weakness of God is 
stronger than the power of man, the individual was re- 
claimed, man was to be no longer a mere part and parcel 
of the state. Man was told of his value in the sight of 
heaven, his own home ; he was taught no longer to look 
for pleasure, that his pleasure was to be found hereafter. 
The truths of immortality entered his soul, and the world 
and its pleasures appeared as they are ; transient, pass- 
ing. Society was supernaturalized, God was born into 
it and coming in contact with it gave it a new life and 
a neAV impulse. It had been under condemnation, and 
man in his wanderings had lost the old traditions 5 one 

80 



CHRISTMAS DAY. 

lingered: that some one was to save them. They felt 
their power lessness ; they might stretch out their hands to 
catch the heavens but in vain. God must stretch out His 
arm, take them up and thus reconcile them or else they 
would drift, as they had been drifting, away from God 
into darkness, and into death. But He came. The 
Light of the World. Man was told of his true home, 
heaven, as a place of reward, and that his life must be 
spent in winning it. 

The family found its proper place. The woman was 
reclaimed, no more the plaything, she became the part- 
ner of her husband. His interests, his joys were all hers, 
she must share them all, and the pledge that he gave to 
take her only while on earth could not be violated. The 
law emanating from the crib enjoined one with one only 
and forever. Thus was the key stone of the family arch 
secured, and the Mother restored to the rights which 
nature and God intended she should possess. These 
changes in the life of the individual and the family 
would soon mould society anew, for it is made up of 
families and individuals. Neither was the down-trod- 
den slave forgotten. The Gospel of the babe in the crib 
interfered and the Child was his champion. Suddenly 
his position was ameliorated. The patience, poverty, 
suffering, and obedience of his Lord and Master were 
held out to him for his imitation. His master is made 
acquainted with the truth that he himself must be kind 
and gentle for he has a Master in heaven. By the pro- 
mulgation of such a doctrine the slave's position began 
to change, he becomes a man, becomes a creature of God, 
his master is no longer his owner. Their end would be 
the same, both must live to fulfill the same destiny in 
their respective spheres. These truths were kept con- 
tinually before men and like the gradual disappearance 
of snow under the rays of the summer sun, so did slavery 
gradually disappear from the Christian world. Under 
the constant preaching of the Gospel coming from the 
6 81 



VII. SERMON. 

Babe of Bethlehem, man was rescued from barbarism 
and paganism, civilization and Christianity now pre- 
vailed and to-day we have reason to rejoice, to thank the 
Lord for the mercies He has shown us, the peace He has 
given us. 

To-day we commemorate the historical fact that Jesus 
Christ gave Himself to us to be ours, to be ever with 
us. What an act of condescension. What an act of love. 
What better return can we offer Him than to offer Him 
ourselves, to make a complete offering to Him and to re- 
solve that with the assistance of His holy grace we will 
henceforth be His true followers, that we will love Him, 
and that we will show the world, that as Christians, we 
can bear the small burdens which He has imposed upon 
us by keeping His commandments. May the Blessed 
Babe of Bethlehem raise His hands over you, bless this 
good resolve and make it productive of good fruit in 
your lives. 



82 



VIII. SERMON. 
THE FEAST OF THE MOST HOLY NAME. 



* His name was called Jesus.'' 

Luke n. 21. 



If we examine history, we shall find inscribed within 
its pages names which deserve the reverence and admi- 
ration of posterity. We shall find those of statesmen 
whose every action, and whose every thought, after God, 
was for their country; men who sacrificed fortune, po- 
sition, and even life itself for the advancement of their 
nation. We shall find the names of philosophers who 
sounded the very depths of human knowledge and of 
human wisdom ; men who left upon their time an impres- 
sion which centuries could not obliterate; we shall find 
the names of Theologians whose mighty intellect, illu- 
mined by Heaven, shed light upon the mysteries revealed 
by God, and won over hearts and minds to the love of the 
truth. Names such as these you will find written there; 
known, yet little thought of; admired, yet seldom and 
for a short time loved. In their midst however there 
is a name greater than all, because its possessor was more 
than man ; a name more powerful, for it is the name of 
God; the name that alone is loved with an heroic love: 
the name of Jesus Christ. Other men lived, accom- 
plished great things, died, and with their death were 
forgotten. Their deeds may have lived after them, and 

83 



VIII. SERMON. 

thus for a time their names were familiar; still, with 
time, they were doomed to pass away. One name alone 
was to be loved and universally revered ; a name that 
alone gained followers in every land, was uttered in 
every tongue; and universally loved by the human heart 
in every age: that name is the name given to the Saviour 
of Mankind. 

Reverse the picture drawn from history, and ask for 
the names of men who have been hated and despised in 
the world. You will find traitors who, for some petty 
gain or favor, or from some selfish motive, betrayed their 
country's valor and their country's honor. You will find 
for the philosopher the cavilling sophist, who destroys 
truth, and makes of man a miserable sceptic; you will 
find for the theologian the rationalist, who bids us hold 
our peace about revealed religion, and tells us that our 
God and His works should be comprehended by the un- 
aided powers of nature alone : and these men though they 
have been admired by some, still, their names are de- 
spised by the majority, considered as dangerous, and 
their principles rejected by the common consent of man- 
kind. But yet, worthy as these men may be of the 
hatred of the world, there is one hated more than they. 
There is a name that the world has persecuted for cen- 
turies. A name that she has sought to erase from the 
human heart and crush out of existence, so great is her 
hatred for it; and that name is again the name of Jesus 
Christ. So that we have the seemingly strange paradox 
of a name for which there is displayed a love that is 
heroic in its devotion, and a hatred that is most in- 
tense in its aversion. And it is a strange fact, which we 
will endeavor to develop for you. We would show you on 
the one hand the malice, with which that sacred name has 
been pursued, and we would show you on the other the 
fondness entertained for it by loving hearts; and then, 
in conclusion, ask upon which side do we range our- 
selves. Are we the friends, or are we the enemies, 

84 



THE FEAST OF THE MOST HOLY NAME. 

of the Holy Name of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ ? 

I. When the birth of Christ was made known to 
the wise men, the spirit of Anti-christ manifested itself, 
and while the infant Jesus was lying in a manger re- 
jected by His own people, King Herod resolved that His 
name should never be known to the world. While a 
child He must die, and assembling together all the chief 
priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of 
them where Christ would be born; and they said to him 
in Bethlehem of Juda. He then tells the Magi to 
search diligently for the child, and when they had found 
him to return and bring him word, that he too might go 
and adore him. The Magi set out, find the child in a 
stable, and are told, by a messenger from Heaven, not 
to return to Herod. The King finding himself deluded 
and filled with jealousy, orders all the male children 
which were in Bethlehem, from two years old and under, 
to be put to death; in this way would the child be des- 
troyed and his throne preserved. It was the sin of 
to-day; the world in the person of Herod considering 
Christ as an usurper, and consequently hating Him who 
claims the kingship of the earth. Then for the first 
time did hatred for Jesus spring up, and when He thirty 
years after began his public work, the world again recog- 
nized Him as its enemy and surrounding Him in the 
persons of the Scribes and Pharisees, it dared to des- 
ignate Him as a "seducer of the people/' Some said: 
" Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan and hast a 
devil ? " Others, beholding His miracles, asserted 
that it was " by the prince of devils that He cast out 
devils," and others again said : " We know that this 
man is a sinner. He hath a devil and is mad, why 
hear you Him ? " They would act as Herod, they 
would put Him to death, and thus they would rid the 
world of Him. They plot His ruin and He enters 
upon His passion. The people cry aloud for His blood, 

85 



VIII. SERMON. 

He is given up to the populace and is crucified. They 
see Him die as other men, they see Him buried as 
others, their desires are at last gratified, for like others 
that rose in the world He would soon be forgotten, His 
name would not be remembered. They had forgotten 
that He left after Him faithful servants, that He had 
founded a society that was ever to remain, that He had 
established a Church. But alas ! as with the Master 
so with the servants. For as soon as He had ascended 
into Heaven what became of His Apostles who were to 
bear His name to the world ? They were laid hold of upon 
the streets and accused of being seditious as was their 
Master, and then stoned to death or slain by the sword. 
The Apostolic age passed away, the name of Jesus still 
lived. Judaism had not been successful, but what 
could not be accomplished in Jerusalem would be tried 
in Rome and Rome, mistress as she was of the world, 
Rome with all her power began to attack the Holy Name. 
Read her history and you will find it to be the history 
of a sinful world, you will read of ten persecutions that 
deluged her soil with the blood of martyrs, you will 
read that the Christians were a despised and hated class 
of people who were regarded as the cause of every mis- 
fortune that befell Rome. If for instance the Roman 
army were not successful in war, it was ascribed to the 
Christians. The Gods of the Empire were said to be 
angry because their temples were forsaken for the temple 
of Christ. If there were an insurrection in the prov- 
inces, again the fault was laid upon the Christians. 
They were regarded as the enemies of mankind, as the 
enemies of the Gods, and hence the cry : " The Chris- 
tians to the lions." Heathenism fell with the fall of 
the Roman Empire, but still persecution continued. 
The world must rid itself of the name of Jesus, and 
Heresy took up what Paganism could not accomplish. 
Under one form or another it would attack the Holy 
JTame. It would first say that Jesus Christ was not 

86 



THE FEAST OF THE MOST HOLY NAME. 

God, and that He had no right or claim on the world. 
Not having the Man-God present to lead to death as the 
Jews did, and seeing the numbers that believed in His 
Real Presence, in the Most Holy Sacrament where Christ 
is yet with us, they would deny that Real Presence, and 
they would throw insult upon that Sacrament. They 
would call Christ Himself a liar, and say that the truth 
was not in Him when He asserted that it contained 
His body and His blood. Then unbelief would create 
an atmosphere of doubt in which men should daily walk, 
and thus would their devotion, their true heartedness 
to the Holy Name be chilled; if they did not absolutely 
deny its sway over the heart, they w T ould at least forget 
it or but think of it rarely. Under one form or another 
the attack was always the same. The cry of Voltaire 
was nothing new, it had been the cry of ages: " Crush 
out the infamous one." Thus did the world oppose 
Christ in person, and His Church, His representative 
on earth. The order of to-day is persecution but in a 
very insidious manner. It sees a man to-day maintain- 
ing that he is the representative of Christ upon earth, 
he claims that his power was received from Heaven not 
from earth ; claims supremacy in all that pertains to 
Christ's kingdom upon the world, tells temporal rulers 
that they are not chosen to administer the affairs of 
that kingdom, that they are not to molest it. The world 
asserts that this is an assumption of power and calls 
upon the Church to nationalize itself, that the temporal 
ruler will administer the affairs of the Church within 
his own domain. It calls out and repeats the cry of the 
Jews: " We have no king, we know no king but Caesar." 
It is again the old warfare, the setting aside of God's 
claims upon the world. Nor should we be surprised 
that this hatred of the world for Christ should be so 
intense now that we have seen it as it is, we should not 
be alarmed, for it is but the fulfillment of Christ's own 
prophecy when he said : " Ye shall be hated of all 

87 



VIII. SERMON. 

men for my name's sake.*' It is the fulfillment of 
Isaiah's words : " There is no beauty or comeliness, 
we have seen him and there is no sightliness that we 
should desire him. He is the most despised and most 
outcast among men. His look is as it were hidden, he 
is despised and we esteemed him not." It is but the 
fulfillment of Simeon's words when he said to the 
Blessed Virgin : " Behold this child is set for the ruin 
and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a 
sign which shall be contradicted." No! we need not 
be surprised for it is the contest of sin against sanctity. 
The world beheld a man that had to condemn it, that 
preached hatred of the world; hence it is that the world 
hates and has ever hated the reign of Jesus Christ upon 
earth, and that it ever seeks to destroy the Sacred 
Name. 

II. Though hated, yet that Name was loved, not by 
a class of people but by men at large ; not for a time but 
for nineteen centuries. It was a Name that became 
known to every child through the world. There was no 
country upon the globe that did not become acquainted 
with it, there was no language in which it was not ex- 
pressed, there was no people among whom it was not 
revered. Nay, more, the cross that holds before our 
gaze the figure of Jesus dying, the cross that had before 
been an instrument of torture is raised aloft as an object 
of veneration; it had been washed by the blood of Jesus 
Christ, and as it was the symbol, the sign of salvation 
to the world, so should it be raised in every habitable 
portion of the globe; so that it might silently yet forci- 
bly point to the price that was paid for man's redemp- 
tion. Despite persecution it was destined to supplant 
the Roman Eagles. A Boniface would grasp it, carry 
it to the wilds of Germany, and there subdue the savage 
tribes by the plain recital of the life of the man of sor- 
rows. Remigius would take it up and show it to Clovis 
the king of the Franks, he would tell him of the bitter 

88 



THE FEAST OF THE MOST HOLY NAME. 

Passion of Jesus Christ; he would tell him of His love 
for mankind, and Clovis, filled with all the honest 
indignation of a soldier whose soul is wrapt up in arms 
would exclaim, " Oh that I had been there w T ith my 
Franks, they would not have treated him thus." A 
Patrick would take it, cross the rough seas, hold it before 
the Celt and tell its history; and that generous-hearted 
nation to a man would gather under its foot never to be 
separated from it, no matter what the cost or what the 
penalty. They might be threatened, and persecuted, 
they might be exiled, cast out upon the broad world, but 
still, wherever they went they took the cross as a relic 
of their native land and presented it to the stranger. 
An Augustine would take it, he too would cross the seas, 
and England with the cross would become the most pow- 
erful nation of the world. The Turk would threaten 
Europe with destruction and Peter the Hermit and 
Urban II. would take up the cross, fire the nations with 
such a love for the preservation of the Holy Land, and 
with such devotion for the maintenance of Christianity 
in the world, that kings would come on bended knee and 
ask for the red cross of the crusader for themselves and 
for their subjects in order that they might do battle for 
the Name of Christ. And thus the Turk would be 
driven back, Europe would be saved, and Christianity 
preserved. Is not this love for the Name of Jesus ? 
AYhere is the name as His Name ? Nations have revered 
it, the world cannot get on without it ; it is the Name 
w 7 hereof St. Paul wrote when he said ; " God hath 
given him a Name which is above every Name. In the 
Name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those who are 
in Heaven, on earth, and in hell, and every tongue 
should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is the glory 
of God the Father." It is the only name that is great 
upon the earth ; other names are loved only in proportion 
as they are united to the name of Christ. You may 
speak of warriors and say that they are loved by their 

£9 



VIII. SERMON. 

people, you may speak of the founders of States and 
Empires, and say that they too are loved, but while say- 
ing so you must remember that it is with a perishable 
love. It is less than the love that the Christian world 
offers to the least known of the Saints that dwelt upon 
this earth. Such was the love of nations for the Holy 
name. What shall we say of the heroic love of indivi- 
duals for that same Name. See the charm, the attrac- 
tion it has for them. 

The virgin will quit the charms, the pleasures of the 
earth for it; the missionary will become a solitary exile 
for life on its account; the martyr will die for it; the 
priest will preach it in the deep forests of America. 
The world, though it hates it, will have to admit that 
name, and she will have to set apart a day in the week 
to commemorate it. Taught to us in childhood we keep it 
through life, it falls from our lips in the morning, we 
again speak it in the evening, and in temptation it is 
our shield: for in that Name we cast out devils. Wher- 
ever we turn, our eye falls on a crucifix, or lights upon 
a statue or picture that calls to mind the Name of Jesus. 
And in our last agony we wish it to be the last name 
mentioned by us on earth. Were we not correct in say- 
ing that it is a name loved beyond all names ? But 
what is our love for that Holy Name; what ought it to 
be ? Some three centuries ago a young brave was seek- 
ing glory upon a battle field in Spain, the city of Pam- 
peluna was taken, and the gallant officer shut himself 
up within the citadel. The French bore down upon it 
with their artillery and soon a breach was made in the 
wall of the fortress. The young commander instantly 
appeared upon the breach at the head of the bravest part 
of the garrison, and with his sword in hand endeavored 
to drive back the enemy; he fought for fame and coun- 
try, and what cared he if his life was lost, the cause was 
noble and would merit the applause and praise of his 
countrymen. He fell upon the breach wounded ; and 

90 



THE FEAST OF THE MOST HOLY NAME. 

the moment he fell the garrison surrendered. He was 
borne to the Castle of Loyala, and there for weeks he 
suffered from the wound he had received. He called 
for books, tales, romances of knight errantry; there were 
none such in the Castle, and he was obliged to content 
himself reading the lives of the Saints. At first they 
were dry reading for the soldier, but soon he began to 
relish them; he looked upon the saints as greater war- 
riors than those who figured on the field of battle, for 
they were the conquerors of self. He read there of men 
who were so devoted to Christ and to the Cross that they 
buried themselves alive in caves and desert places, pale 
with fasting and covered with hair cloth, and he rec- 
ognized that true greatness and glory were to be found 
only in uniting oneself to the Cross. He saw that if he 
were to be happy in the next world and win the glory 
for which he had thirsted, he must unite himself to the 
cause of that great captain of the world Jesus Christ. 
And he was obliged to say to himself in studying their 
lives: " These men were of the same frame I am of; 
why then should not I do as they have done ? " From 
that moment his resolve was taken, and that young man 
has since been known in history as Ignatius of Loyola, 
the founder of the Society of Jesus, the great saint 
who gave so many children to Christianity under 
the name of Jesuits. He won the glory for which he 
sought, the glory of the saint of God. Now here is our 
model. As Ignatius loved the name of Jesus, so too 
must we love it, we must recognize Christ as our leader, 
as our king, for we are as St. Paul says, members of 
Christ's body. We are in one word to become Jesuits; 
that is, in our lives true followers and true disciples of 
Jesus Christ, and that we may become such, that we may 
be worthy members of the body of Christ, there are three 
duties that we must ever observe. 

I. We must be as Christ was, pure in heart and 
body, mortified in our lives and patient with the little 

91 



VIII. SERMON. 

trials that we are wont to meet with in every day life; 
if we be impatient, if we be sinful, then our place is not 
under a king who is sanctity itself, under a chief whose 
pillow is made of thorns, and whose sceptre is a reed. 

II. As we are members of the one body we must be 
in union with the head who is Jesus Christ, and with 
the other members who are our neighbors. We must 
conform our wills to the will of Christ, and what He 
loves we must love, what He hates we must hate. As 
He loves all mankind so too must we love them, and as 
He hates the world so too must we hate the world. True, 
we will often find imperfections in our neighbor, for as 
long as we are in this world we will not be perfect, but 
can we not make the same allowance for others that they 
have often to make for us ? If by accident some member 
of our body were disabled, and if it did not threaten our 
lives would we part with it ? Would we love it the less ? 
Just so let it be with our neighbor, for he is a member of 
the same body that we are, and consequently is to be 
loved despite his slight defects and inconsistencies. 

III. We have to love Jesus Christ with a tender and 
ever constant love as we have been made one with Him, 
our will must be His will, and our hearts must be con- 
formed to His heart; His interests are our interests, 
when they are threatened we should be there to sustain 
them. Through His Church we are made acquainted 
with His will, what it condemns and tells us to avoid 
that we must condemn and avoid. Now if we are to 
examine ourselves in all sincerity upon this one head: 
ask ourselves if we are obedient to the voice of the 
Church, ask ourselves if we feel that the Church's in- 
terests in this world are the interests of Jesus Christ and 
consequently ours; how many of us will have to admit 
that we do not fully recognize our position as members 
of Christ's mystical body. We are told of the dangers 
that await us in the world; we are warned against 
forming life contracts with those who differ from us in 

92 



THE FEAST OF THE MOST HOLY NAME. 

religion; we are told of societies that are sapping, un- 
consciously perhaps, the foundations of faith and 
morality; we are told of the necessity of approaching 
the Sacraments frequently; yet how many, even of those 
who are now listening, turn a deaf ear to that voice; can 
they say that they have any regard for the interests of 
Christ in this world ? Can they say that they are friends 
of the Holy Name ? Or rather must they not admit that 
they are its enemies, not positively set against it if you 
will, but by their lives telling the world that whatever 
little good they may do springs, not from a love they 
entertain toward Jesus Christ, but from the mere motive 
of human respect. 

Well, friends of the world, of the world they may 
expect their reward, for certainly they are not of the 
class who profess Christ lovingly, courageously to the 
world, and cannot therefore expect that he will confess 
them before His Father w 7 ho is in Heaven. 



93 



IX. SERMON. 
THE HOLY NAME. 



" How admirable is thy name on the whole earth." 

Psalms viii. 10. 



Such were the words of the inspired Psalmist as 
he reflected upon the greatness and goodness of God 
manifested in creation, and when we consider the con- 
flicts sustained, and the victories achieved through the 
Holy name of Jesus, such are the words with which we 
Catholics may salute with peculiar appropriateness the 
Son of God. Eighteen hundred years ago it fell for the 
first time trembling from the lips of an Angel, it was 
caught up by the world and reechoed age after age, and 
is to-day the only name worthy of our love and adoration. 
Search the history of the world from the creation to the 
present day ; run over the bright names that dot its pages, 
and then ask yourselves : who of all these is now most 
loved, who of all these is now most thought of? 
Scrutinize the world's roll of warriors, consult the pages 
that have chronicled the names of her sons of wisdom, 
invoke her men of genius and of talent, then ask your- 
selves: has anyone of these great warriors, sages, or 
intellectual giants, left his name enshrined in the loving 
hearts of the world. 

This the great Napoleon did when in exile upon the 
ocean's barren rock, and what think you were his con- 

94 



THE HOLY NAME, 

elusions ? Conversing with his friend Montholon he 
said: " There have been but three great generals in 
this world, Caesar, Alexander and myself. In spite of 
all their exploits, Alexander and Caesar are now but 
mere themes for schoolboys : — who loves them now ? So 
it is with myself; my memory will live perhaps fifty or 
sixty years in the hearts of some brave men and after 
that no one will love me more. One being alone is still 
loved on this earth after eighteen hundred years. He 
is Jesus Christ. Montholon! Montholon! I know 
something of men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ was 
not a man." 

Yes, Napoleon was right. He has answered the 
question: Who is now loved most upon this earth. 
This brings me to speak of the excellency of that Most 
Holy name, which is heavenly in its origin, emblematic 
of the God-man in His two natures, human and divine, 
the epitome of the divine perfections; a reminder to 
loving hearts of the birth, life and death of our Crucified 
King. 

His name is heavenly in its origin. In the fullness 
of time set by the Eternal Decree for the temporal 
generation of the ever begotten Son of God the Father, 
this name was whispered to the Virgin Mary by an Angel 
of the Most High : " You will call His name Jesus/' 
Unlike the names of earth, it was to bear some relation 
to the person who possessed it. Take the names that 
are given us in Baptism, analyze their meaning and 
note how many of them express the character of those 
who possess them. Yet this is but natural, for not fore- 
seeing the future, we do not know the mission of the 
babe, and hence we are led by some other motive in 
naming the child. Perhaps that of placing it under the 
special protection of a Saint, perhaps that of recalling 
some friend who sleeps in death; or, it may be of inter- 
est, or, as is often the case, of vanity; not so however 
with the adorable name of Jesus. 

95 



IX. SERMON. 

Earth was not consulted. Mary, His Blessed Mother, 
St. Joseph, His foster Father, the Angels in heaven, of 
all these none were consulted in the choice of that name. 
God alone in His wisdom, knowing the mission of His 
Divine Son, gave Him a name above every name. A 
name which with peculiar propriety should be His alone, 
expressing the unity of person and distinction of nature 
in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Yes, in the analysis of that 
name we shall find the existence of His divine and 
human nature, we shall recognize Christ, God and Man. 
Nor do we need for this the power and magic of learn- 
ing; we may cast away for the present all worldly knowl- 
edge, we may discard the opinions of men, and opening 
the Holy Gospel we shall find the signification of that 
name fixed by God Himself. 

After the Angel had announced to Mary the Miracu- 
lous Conception of the Divine Word, he continued say- 
ing; " He shall be great and shall be called the Son of 
the Most High, and the Lord God shall give unto Him 
the throne of David His father, and He shall reign in the 
house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall 
be no end. And therefore the Holy One which shall be 
born of thee, shall be called the Son of God." Behold 
here the credentials of Christ to that title which He so 
often made use of when speaking of Himself: "He 
shall be called the son of the Most High ! " Herein again 
lies His title to immortality which He claimed when re- 
proached by the Jews : " Amen, Amen, I say to you be- 
fore Abraham was, I am." Of His kingdom there shall 
be no end, He reigns throughout time and eternity. 
Throughout eternity in consideration of His eternal 
generation from the Father and throughout time in con- 
sideration of His temporal generation by the power of 
the Holy Ghost from the Immaculate Virgin; and from 
this shall He be called the Son of God. Behold here 
also his title to equality with His Father, for surely the 
first truth that presents itself to the mind when we con- 



THE HOLY NAME. 

template the relation of The Trinity is the identity of 
their natures, the Son must be a person distinct from 
but of the same nature as the Father. And therefore 
the Holy One which shall be born of thee shall be called 
the Son of God. 

When the Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in 
his sleep these were his words : " Joseph, Son of David, 
fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which 
is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall 
bring forth a son and thou shalt call His name Jesus, for 
He shall save the people from their sins." Behold here 
again in this text the divinity and humanity of Christ. 
He shall be conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost 
and shall be born of a Virgin. Behold here the mission 
of Christ. " He shall save the people from their sins" 
and finally behold the reason why this name Jesus is 
given Him by His Heavenly Father. " He shall be 
called Jesus because He shall be the Saviour of the 
world." This is His part in the divine plan of the 
Redemption, and for this reason did He obtain that 
name which contains within it the sum of all the divine 
perfections. In that small word Jesus, we see reflected 
the power, the mercy, the justice, and the wisdom of 
God. Picture the condition of man after his fall; the 
beautiful creation which had sprung from the power of 
God was shattered by the disobedience of Man. Sin and 
death passed into the world, and we were as the Apostle 
says " Sold under sin." Lost to God, and fallen from 
our happy state, who shall restore us? Who of all the 
Angels in heaven is able to render us again pleasing in 
the sight of God ? In vain do we call upon that heavenly 
court; who then of the Sons of Adam shall arise to save 
us ? Ah ! He and only He, the promised one of ages, the 
Emmanuel foretold by the Prophets, the Prince of 
Peace, anxiously expected by the nations. None but He 
the God-man. Jesus is sufficiently powerful to save the 
world. None but He, who reflected the attributes of 
7 97 



IX. SERMON. 

the Divinity, for infinite majesty reflected in the Son 
must atone for that offence. Yes my Jesus! when we 
repeat Thy name, we recognize Thy Almighty Power, for 
who could save us but one of infinite power. When we 
repeat Thy name we recognize Thy justice, for who could 
satisfy the justice of an angry God but justice itself. 
When we repeat Thy name we recognize the Emmanuel, 
" God with us," for who could be our Saviour but a God 
and man at the same time, for what but infinite mercy 
could induce Thee to assume the sinful nature of man. 

Jesus ! At the sound of that name, mysteries of love 
are called to mind, imagination conjures a life of suffer- 
ing and undying love, we see a God become man for us, 
we adore an infant in the manger, we see a Man-God 
dwelling in poverty, working like the most miserable of 
men, praying for the world, and obedient to his crea- 
tures. Before this spectacle our pride is confounded, 
our idleness rebuked, and our spirit of impenitence con- 
demned. Jesus! The very name recalls the victim in 
his Agony in the Garden, before our eyes passes the 
ever-to-be-remembered drama of the Passion, Calvary's 
heights arise, and struggling up its side with the heavy 
weight of the Cross, surrounded by a jeering rabble, the 
Saviour of the world with looks indicative of the serenity 
of heaven ascends that hill amid the tumult and blas- 
phemies of a maddened throng. 

That name recalls the victim suspended between 
heaven and earth; there we behold our Priest, King and 
Pontiff, our Legislator and Mediator, and our souls 
wafted by faith beyond the boundaries of time and space, 
behold Him in the regions of that imperishable world 
Heaven, fulfilling the office of Advocate and Intercessor, 
beseeching His heavenly Father to spare us, for we know 
not what we do. What an astounding history in that 
adorable name ! Did we not with reason assert that it 
was heavenly in its origin, profound in its meaning, and 
most affecting in its reminiscences? 

98 



THE HOLY NAME. 

Let us now pass from the consideration of the name 
as relating to our Blessed Lord, let us endeavor further 
to penetrate its treasures and examine it with relation to 
ourselves. The Apostle Paul chiding the Corinthians 
for their excesses, tells them to remember : " That they 
are washed, that they are sanctified, that they are justi- 
fied in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." Herein 
lies for us the grandest of truths, the name of Jesus is 
for us the principle and source of our Sanctification ; if 
we would be saved it must be through that Holy Name. 
You are all familiar with that recital in the Acts of the 
Apostles where this truth is expressly declared by St. 
Peter himself. It is related there that there was a cer- 
tain cripple who was carried every day to the door of 
the temple by his friends, in order that he might sit 
there and beg alms from those going in and out. This 
was his position for years, and all those who visited 
the temple, even those who neglected the silent entreaty 
of the outstretched palm, recognized his familiar face. 
It chanced that as Peter and John were entering the 
temple the poor beggar asked for alms, and Peter and 
John stopping fixed their eyes upon him and said: 
" Look upon us," and the poor cripple looked up ear- 
nestly, thinking that he was going to receive something 
from them. But Peter said : " Silver and Gold I 
have none, but what I have I give thee; in the name of 
Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk." And 
forthwith his feet became firm, overcome with joy, 
never having known the use of his limbs before he began 
to walk and leap and run. He goes into the temple, and 
the people seeing him walking in their midst are as- 
tonished, whereas he, mindful of the favor he has re- 
ceived and wishing to sound the praises of the Apostles, 
goes and lays hold of them. The people seeing him lay 
hold of Peter and John are amazed, and gather about 
them, and Peter seeing this, makes answer to the people: 
" Ye men of Israel, whv wonder ye at this, or why look 

99 
LofC. 



IX. SERMON. 

you upon us, as if by our strength or power we had made 
this man to walk. The God of Abraham hath glorified 
his son Jesus and his name through faith hath made this 
man strong." What miraculous power in that Holy 
Name ! Truly did Christ prophesy when He said : " In 
my name they shall cast out devils, they shall speak with 
new tongues, they shall place their hands upon the sick 
and they shall recover." But Peter would make still 
another declaration from that miracle. He went on to 
teach the people who had gathered about him, but as the 
Priests and Sadducees of the temple were jealous they 
would not look on and view the conversions that fol- 
lowed, so they seized the Apostles and hurried them to 
prison. 

On the morrow, summoning their council, they set 
Peter and John in their midst and asked them : " By 
what power or in what name have you done this ? " 
Then Peter, says the inspired writer, filled with the Holy 
Ghost, said to them : " Ye rulers of the people and 
ancients hear: if we are this day examined concerning 
the good deed done to the infirm man, by what means he 
hath been made whole ; be it known to you and to all the 
people of Israel that in the name of our Lord Jesus 
Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God hath 
raised from the dead, by Him doth this man stand here 
before you whole. This is the stone which was rejected 
by you the builders, which becomes the head of the 
corner, nor is there salvation in any other, for there is 
no other name under heaven given to men whereby we 
must be saved." Here then is the testimony of Peter 
telling the council that this name is the source of our 
sanctification. In that name alone and in no other under 
heaven may we hope for salvation. 

Erase that name and Christianity dies and the life of 
man becomes a dark enigma, void of all solution. Erase 
that name and charity flies to its heavenly home, society 
disappears, and a worse than barbarism prevails. Would 

100 



THE HOLY NAME. 

that men in their strange reasonings, men who deny the 
divinity of Christ, but stop to reflect upon the con- 
sequences of their doctrines. It seems to me that they 
would start back terrified at the spectacle, and this very 
conclusion of what would inevitably follow upon the 
denial of the divinity of Christ is certainly a powerful 
proof of His divinity. 

Ah! if we would but consider the mysteries of His 
Holy Name, where is the man who would dare to deny 
Him? We can now well understand why the Apostles, 
as the Acts relate, went forth from the council after they 
had been scourged, " rejoicing that they were accounted 
worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Christ Jesus." 

We can now understand why the martyrs of the first 
ages endured such sufferings, we can now understand the 
sufferings of the ministers of the Gospel in our own day 
in endeavoring to carry the knowledge of that Holy 
Name to Nations yet uncivilized ; they have conceived 
a love for it and its power upholds them. Like St. 
Francis of Sales, thev have discovered in that name a 
power which made the angels rejoice, saved men, and 
made the demon tremble. 

Would then, that we could impress on you the neces- 
sity of devotion to this Holy Name. Would that we 
could persuade those, if there be any so guilty, to refrain 
from blaspheming that Holy Name. Cultivate within 
your heart the greatest love and respect for it; and if 
others be so ungrateful as to use it unworthily in your 
presence, do you bow down your heads to honor it, that you 
may thus in some manner repair the offence of your 
neighbor. Let it be ever in your hearts, teach it to your 
lisping children; tell them to repeat it with love and 
confidence in the morning when they arise, in the even- 
ing when they retire to rest, and throughout the day in 
their many actions. Let them use it as a shield against 
the temptations of the devil, for remember Christ Him- 
self says: "In my name you shall cast out devils." 

101 



IX. SERMON. 

In your many sufferings through life, suffer in honor of 
that Name, and especially my friends in the hour of 
death, in that dread hour, when the light of eternity is 
fast breaking in upon the soul, when friends whom we 
loved, when the riches, honors, and pleasures of the 
world are fading from our sight; Oh! then let that Holy 
K'ame be on your lips and in your heart, repeat it with 
hope and confidence and so depart from this world with 
your last breath an act of devotion, that you may merit 
to chant it eternally with the blessed of Heaven. 



102 



X. SERMON. 
THE INCREDULITY OF ST. THOMAS. 



Unless I shall see in his hands the prints of the nails 
and put my hand into his side, Iivill not believe. 11 

John xx. 19-31. 



Were we to tell you from the pulpit that a deadly- 
disease had broken out in our midst you would no doubt 
be somewhat startled and would listen with interest to 
all that we should have to say to you about it. We pur- 
pose to tell you of a contagion that is rapidly spreading; 
to tell you of a disease filling the entire moral world, and 
endangering not the safety or health of the body, but 
the salvation of immortal souls. 

To-day's Gospel suggests this subject, for it is no other 
than the incredulity of St. Thomas. Our Blessed Lord 
had appeared to the Holy Women who were at the 
sepulchre, and had told them to acquaint His Disciples 
of the fact. He had appeared to the two who were on 
their way to Emmaus and rebuked them for their little 
faith ; He had appeared to Peter and the other Disciples 
who were fishing on the borders of the lake. He had 
appeared publicly in the midst of eleven of them as we 
are told in to-day's Gospel, when they were in an upper 
chamber shut up there for fear of the Jews; He had 
wished them peace ; he had quieted their troubles and 
doubts; but still, St. Thomas was not satisfied with this 

103 



%. SERMON. 

amount of testimony, and when the Apostles told him 
that they had seen the Lord he made answer : " Unless I 
shall seen in His hands the prints of the nails, and put my 
hand into His side, I will not believe." He did not say: 
unless I see Him and speak to Him as you have done I 
will not believe. l$o ! he went farther ; he seemed to 
think that they might have been deceived by their senses, 
and therefore he particularized and asserted that he 
would not believe unless he could feel His body and ex- 
amine each one of the wounds He had received during His 
passions; for he knew that no man could bear such 
wounds and live. Hence it was that he demanded their 
inspection before 'his mind would give credence to the 
fact that a man had risen from the dead by his own 
power. Strange, was it not, that Thomas would not 
believe that our Lord had risen, from the testimony of 
the other apostles. He had seen that Master going 
about doing good, no doubt often accompanied Him, and 
had seen Him work wonderful miracles. He saw the 
lame rise and walk, he saw the blind receive their sight ; 
saw the tongues of the dumb loosened and heard them 
speak ; saw the dead quit their graves and leave their 
winding sheets when called upon by a single word. He 
was present when our Blessed Lord told His Disciples 
and the multitude at large, that He was going to give 
them His flesh to eat and His blood to drink; and 
though many who stood' by would not believe the hard 
saying and went back and would not walk any longer 
with Him because they could not understand; still we 
are not told that Thomas did not believe". He was pres- 
ent at the Last Supper, and when the moment came 
for the fulfilment of that promise, viz. : that He was to 
give men His body and blood, Thomas tasted and 
believed. 

Yet now, strange to say, he will not believe in our 
Lord's Resurrection. 

We feel as though he should be censured for his action 

104 



THE INCREDULITY OE ST. THOMAS. 

and we find fault with him for not assenting to the 
truth of Christ's Resurrection — after he had seen the 
wonderful works accomplished by his Divine Master — 
without wishing to test the truth by the evidence of his 
own senses. Yet, how many are the Thomases in the 
world, how many incredulous and unbelieving even in 
our midst. We ask ourselves that question and we are 
somewhat surprised at the answer that forces itself upon 
us. We see unbelief growing up about us on every side, 
and we hear truths consecrated by the belief of cen- 
turies, and testified to by the most reliable witnesses 
called in question, cavilled about as though they had 
their origin from the mere opinion of men, not from 
God. Enter any class of society, and question its be- 
lief. You will be surprised at its want of faith. Men 
will tell you of opinions that they entertain, but they 
cannot state for you a single article of belief. What 
then, let us ask ourselves, is the cause of the unbelief 
that infects the world nowadays. Have not men the 
same reason for believing that they always had? Have 
they not the same motives, the same authority for the 
truths of religion that they always had ? How is it then 
that we move in such an atmosphere of doubt and un- 
certainty regarding religion's truths ? It is true that 
the Enemy of our Salvation is ever busy warring against 
us; he is the lion seeking whom he may devour that St. 
Paul speaks of, and his agents are active in the cause of 
error. 

In the first place they strive to pervert the young. It 
may not be done intentionally perhaps, but still the fact 
is that they wish to educate without Religion. Here is 
the first source of infidelity. It is to be found in the 
want of proper education and training. Let Religion 
be driven from the school room ; let the truths of God 
not be heard within its walls ; set to work all the powers 
of the intelligence and foster the ambition of youth, 
without warning it of its duties to God and to society, 

105 



X. SERMON. 

and the consequence will be that you stifle the conscience, 
and give to the world the scheming successful business 
man of the day ; a man with brains, but without religion ; 
a man with money, but without God ; a man with respect 
for humanity, but without a conscience. 

Another cause or source of the infidelity which exists 
about us is the Press, that power which should be used 
as the educator of men. It is a moving power in society, 
and were it true to its mission, what wonderful results 
it might accomplish ! Employ it as all things human 
might be employed, as a means for obtaining our end, 
and who could estimate its good work. Make it the 
organ through which the public may suppress crime, 
condemn injustice and uphold the principles of 
morality; then this wonderful power which turns the 
world daily into a school-room and makes us its pupils, 
then this mighty power will be true to its trust. But 
instead of this, how do men pervert and abuse this ad- 
vantage ? Daily sheets which fly from the press and 
find their way into the hands of millions, are laden with 
hidden poison; scandals, the most filthy are laid before 
our eyes whose heroes are the representative men of the 
time. Religion even is not respected, and doctrines that 
have been received by the world for centuries are spoken 
of flippantly, as though they were conundrums proposed 
and offered for solution. So, too, modern literature in 
its turn has become infidel; characters are there depicted 
lacking honesty and morality, and yet these are the 
heroes of the latest novel. In fact the young gentleman 
and the young lady have grown so fond of this kind of 
reading that all else is heavy and dry for them; it must 
be, as they express it, stirring and spicy; that is to say, 
its characters must meet with hair-breadth escapes at 
every turn, and show in their dealings some sharp 
practice. Such are the books which are offered you 
upon the newsdealers' stands, and which are thrust at 
you if you ride but a few miles in our railroad cars. 

106 



THE INCREDULITY OF ST. THOMAS. 

Their very titles are suggestive; they are bought up and 
devoured by the young, and slowly and in small doses 
the poison is thus taken; the young man, the young 
woman, gradually becomes irreligious, or even at least 
careless about the practice of their Religion. 

The third great source of infidelity is the Pulpit; the 
Pulpit which should be the instrument above all others 
for destroying all forms of infidelity and unbelief. But 
a short time since, the question was publicly asked : " Is 
there a Hell ? " Immediately every sectarian pulpit in 
the country was offering its answer to the question. 
Some denied its existence, others maintained it; whilst 
others again thought there was such a place as hell, but 
that it was not everlasting in its duration. The Catholic 
Pulpit alone took no notice of that question, for the 
Catholic Doctrine was and ever has been settled. But 
imagine the thoughts of thousands who listened to this 
question as it was proposed, who heard the opinions that 
were expressed upon it; conceive again the thousands 
who were not auditors but who read of it in the public 
prints ! What must have been the effect upon them ? 
They saw their professed leaders, their professed teach- 
ers, unable to answer that question for them ; giving their 
opinions merely, thus throwing many into a state of 
doubt, others into a state of unbelief; while others con- 
cluded that Religion is but a farce if so fundamental a 
truth cannot be defined. Scarcely had that question 
died out when it was asked : " If there were a Heaven ? " 
Again the answers were offered, and again doubts were 
expressed of a future life either of blessedness or of woe. 
Nay, men go farther; they foolishly question the ex- 
istence of God, and thus are beginning to lose their faith, 
their belief. Here then are some of the sources of un- 
belief. It is drunk in at the school room ; the young 
mind is taught nothing of God, the Catechism is not 
known sufficiently and taught among our young people; 
the current literature of the day, the sensational novel 

107 



X. SERMON. 

is full of unbelief; for to be sensational, it must deny 
some precept of law; it must show that its hero is 
courageous and shrinks not from shedding blood; shrinks 
not from breaking a life contract that he may have 
entered into by availing himself of a divorce. The Pul- 
pit too, which should be the guardian of Faith and of the 
doctrines of Christianity, is doing its work in propagat- 
ing infidelity; it is filled with contradictions, wandering 
about not knowing what to believe. 

Now what is the effect of all this upon mankind ? It 
is a sad one, its natural product is the unbeliever, the 
sceptic, the man who perhaps believes in some Great 
Being who rules all things, but who has doubts about 
every thing else in the religious world. Let the prin- 
ciples of a man who doubts the existence of the future 
world, who ignores a place of punishment in the next ; 
let his principles be once received; remove from the 
minds of men the truth that no matter what their works 
may be in this world, they will never be punished for 
them; remove this truth from their minds, and you 
immediately destroy society itself. For if there be no 
punishment, for what do we labor? Why do we observe 
laws of right and wrong, why need we practise virtue and 
avoid evil; why practise honesty and avoid knavery? 
If we are free to observe no laws, if we are free to com- 
mit crime, what becomes of society ? Men would fol- 
low the impulses of their passions and the world would 
be converted into a panorama of brutal scenes. If men 
who boast of their unbelief would only pause to reduce 
their premises to their last conclusions, they would never 
venture to broach their doctrines or laud themselves as 
the liberators of the human mind. 

Another product of these different causes working 
upon society is to be found in our own midst, in the midst 
of the Catholic Church. We are moving about in this 
atmosphere of doubt and we are affected by it uncon- 
sciously; hence it is that we have the non-practical be- 

108 



THE INCREDULITY OF ST. THOMAS. 

liever in our own Church; that is to say, the non-practi- 
cal Catholic, the man who says that he is a Catholic 
whilst he does not live up to that profession ; the man who 
infringes every precept of the Church. Examine his 
life with relation to those precepts. In the first place 
he is told to hear Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of 
Obligation under pain of mortal sin. How many, if 
we could question those who are of us to-day, in this city 
alone, how many would we find who have failed in that 
duty? Have they a reason for absenting themselves? 
For the most part they have none ! It is their own care- 
lessness; their time is not precious but still they cannot 
give it; they cannot make the return of one hour in the 
week to the Almighty as an act of thanksgiving for the 
years of life that He has given ! And why is this ? 
Because of the force of example! They live in houses 
adjoining, or they see Sunday after Sunday people whose 
religious convictions do not oblige them to do any act of 
worship on that day ; people who may go to Church or 
stay away from it as they please, without holding them- 
selves in the least responsible. The contagion spreads, 
many are infected, and fall into a careless state of life. 
Again, the Second Precept of the Church enjoins fast- 
ing and abstinence on certain days, for those who can 
fast ; the reason for so doing is, as you know, that we may 
do penance for our sins; for we believe that to sin there 
is attached a temporal as well as eternal punishment. 
The eternal punishment may be remitted, but the tem- 
poral must be endured here or hereafter. These days 
are then appointed by the Church in order that we may 
do that penance even while in this world, willingly, and 
of our own accord. All this Catholics believe, all this 
you believe; yet, may there not be some who have acted 
during those seasons as though they did not believe one 
word of it; some who when hearing the Lenten regula- 
tions proclaimed, immediately decided for themselves and 
came to the conclusion that it did not apply to them ; that 

109 



X. SERMON. 

they were not able, could not fast, could not abstain. 
They did not attempt it, and that time passed away with 
but little penance, if any, for the sins of life. 

The third Precept admonishes us that we are obliged 
to confess our sins at least once a year. There are those 
in this world who can hear this repeated Sunday after 
Sunday and turn a deaf ear to it; yet they style them- 
selves Catholics ! They believe the Church's teachings, 
believe that when Christ breathed upon His Apostles, as 
we read in to-day's Gospel, and said to them : " Whose 
sins you shall forgive they are forgiven, and whose sins 
you shall retain they are retained ; " believe that he then 
gave to them and their successors the power of forgiving 
sins ; still, though they believe all that, years go by with- 
out Confession; go by as though they were leading 
immaculate lives, and stood in no need of the Sacra- 
ments. Will men such as these style themselves be- 
lievers ? 

They may be, but their belief is not unto salvation; 
for St. Paul says : " With the heart we believe unto 
justice, but with the mouth confession is made unto 
Salvation." They must make an external profession of 
their faith by practising the duties imposed by their 
religion. 

The Fourth Precept of our Church says that we must 
receive the Holy Eucharist at Easter or thereabouts. 
If we were really men of faith we should blush to think 
that the Church was obliged to frame such a law. What 
is our belief with regard to the Sacrament of the Altar? 
We believe, as we were taught in our infancy, that it is 
a Sacrament which contains really and indeed the body 
and the blood, the soul and the divinity of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, under the appearance of bread and wine. 
And why has God thus deigned to remain with us in that 
adorable Sacrament ? Eor our strength ; to enable us 
to overcome our passions. That we are to do by feeding 
on that Body, and by drinking that Blood ; and the reward 

110 



THE INCREDULITY OF ST. THOMAS. 

for so doing is life everlasting. " He who eateth my 
flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life, and I 
will raise him up on the last day ; " again He says, after 
proclaiming that He is the bread of life that came down 
from Heaven ; " If any man eat this bread he shall live 
forever, and the bread which I will give is My flesh, for 
the life of the world. He that eateth my flesh and 
drinketh my blood abideth in Me and I in him." This 
is what our Faith teaches, and what Catholics the world 
over believe; yet how many of them act as though they 
did not believe. Should we not blush for the incredulity 
thus visible among us ? 

Our Fifth Precept binds us to support our Pastors. 
It is nothing more than that which the Apostle St. Paul 
speaks of when he tells us that the Lord ordained that 
" they who preach the Gospel should live by the Gospel," 
and " they who serve the Altar partake of the Altar." 
And again he asks : " Who serveth as a soldier at any 
time at his own charges ? Who planteth a vineyard and 
eateth not of the fruit thereof? Who feedeth the flock 
and eateth not of the milk of the flock." Then to show 
them that he might appeal to a law, he recites for them 
the law of Moses. For it is written in that law, he says : 
" Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth 
out the corn," then growing still bolder he says to them; 
" If we have sworn unto your spiritual things, is it a 
great matter if we reap your carnal things ? " As 
though he would say; if we spend our lives laboring for 
your spiritual welfare, is it a matter for complaint that 
you should give us the means of obtaining what is neces- 
sary for us ? Here is the foundation of this law. And 
now, my friends, how is it observed, this law which en- 
joins that we should recompense those who labor for us? 
Were each and every Catholic to do his duty in this re- 
gard we need never hear a single word spoken about 
money, from the pulpit; but there are people who never 
think of this obligation, or if they do, never think it 

HI 



X. SERMON. 

worth their while to practise it; thus the burden falls 
always upon the same shoulders. 

The Church, in her Sixth and last Precept, warns us 
against mixed and clandestine marriages. Our Belief 
is that marriage being a Sacrament, it should, like Bap- 
tism or any other Sacrament, be administered by the 
Church; yet how many clandestine marriages have we 
among our people who go before the squire and acknowl- 
edge him as the Minister of this Sacrament ; who, con- 
tract this alliance before ministers of a different re- 
ligious profession, although they know that by so doing 
they are excommunicated, and that their case is reserved 
for the judgment of the Bishop. We have such cases 
in our midst. What are we to conclude when we take 
up those six Precepts of the Church and see them thus 
broken? Must we not conclude that we are being af- 
fected by that atmosphere of doubt and uncertainty that 
surrounds us, that is gradually stealing in upon us, and 
that hence we should be more watchful and careful? 
For Parents particularly there is included within this 
consideration a lesson that they should from this day 
forth begin to practise. It is, that if they in their own 
lives have been remiss in these duties, they shall hence- 
forth be more faithful; and that as Almighty God has 
entrusted to their charge bright souls, they shall guard 
them from the bad influences that surround them. They 
must place in their hands works not offensive to religion, 
they must keep them from the school room wherein the 
name of God is not mentioned; and they must banish 
from their homes the trashy novel and the journal; they 
must place in their hands works not offensive to religion, 
but instructive in their teachings. In doing this Parents 
will be doing their duty, a duty commanded by God and 
taught by our Holy Mother Church; a duty which will 
gain for them Heaven ; a duty, by which they will be 
sure to hear after death the consoling words of the Great 
Judge : " Well done, thou good and faithful servant. 
Enter into the joy of thy Lord." 

112 



XI. SERMON. 
CHRIST THE TRUE MODEL OF THE CHRISTIAN. 



44 See therefore, brethren, that you walk circumspectly; 
not as unwise; redeeming the time, for the days are evil." 

Eph. v. 15. 



With these words of St. Paul, the Minister. of God's 
Altar may well address his hearers to-day telling them, 
as does the Apostle, to be cautious in their lives, circum- 
spect in their actions, and careful in their words and ex- 
pressions; for the times in which we live are dangerous. 
They indeed try the virtues of all faithful souls. These 
are times when indifference and irreligion play a great 
part on the stage of this world and threaten, if it were 
possible, to extinguish the Christian faith. These are 
times when the words of the Psalmist seem to be fully 
verified when he says : " The Gentiles raged, and 
the people devised vain things; that the kings of the 
earth stood up, and that the princes met in council 
against the Lord and against His Church." 

These are times when the sovereignty of Heaven has 
been called in question; when Christ is refused admis- 
sion into the councils of the world, and when religion is 
regarded only as a salutary institution for the repression 
of public crime, and keeping the masses in restraint. If 
we would avoid the corruption which is abroad, the 
8 113 



XI. SERMON. 

iniquity that is prevalent, we must in such times put in 
practice the advice given in the Epistle of to-day; to 
walk circumspectly, not as unwise but as wise, so that 
we may redeem our age and time. The Christian, no 
matter what may be the age in which he lives, or the 
time in which he moves, has always a mission before 
him; yet there are occasions in the world which make 
this mission of the Christian soul assume some particular 
form for particular times. Thus, in the early days of 
the Church when the Divinity of Christ and His religion 
were questioned or denied, the Christian went forth to 
seal with his blood the doctrine of a crucified God. 
Again, when the spirit of heresy manifested itself, and 
sought, to destroy the doctrines of our faith, the Christian 
again appeared and told the age in unmistakable lan- 
guage that his faith, like the God in whom he believed, 
was unchangeable. 

So now, in this age of indifference the Christian like- 
wise has a glorious mission. He must go out into the 
world despite its innovations, its knowledge, and its 
enlightened culture, and preach by his example Christ 
crucified. He must daily hold up before the world, in 
his life and in his actions, the image of his Redeemer. 
There is a truth so evident to every intelligent mind that 
it admits of no contradiction, or being denied, we seek 
in vain for rest or happiness. It is this: that the hap- 
piness of a human being consists in his perfection, and 
that perfection is obtainable only by obtaining one's end. 
In other words, would man be happy, he must be perfect ; 
and to be perfect he must attain the end for which he 
was made. Miss that end, and a life of misery, both 
here and hereafter, must follow. The perfection of his 
being is the end of man, and happiness is the consequence 
of that perfection. How then will he perfect himself, 
surrounded as he is by all that is imperfect ? Who will 
be his teacher ? Who shall go before and lead the way ? 
Has any one man yet stood before the world and told us 

114 



CHRIST THE TRUE MODEL OF THE CHRISTIAN. 

to follow him, if we would arrive at the proper end ? 
Yes ! In the midst of us stood One and only one who 
dared to say : " I am the Way, the Truth and the Life/' 
if thou wouldst obtain thy end, come, follow me. There 
is then an obligation imposed by Nature, Reason and 
Revelation to follow Christ Jesus Our Lord. By reason, 
if it is true that by following Him we may be saved; by 
Revelation, if in the Scripture we find testimony to that 
effect. If it is the nature of man to seek for happiness, 
if he sighs from the cradle to the grave for that one joy, 
would we not indeed be unreasonable did we not take 
the means to obtain it. Seeking by the aid of reason 
alone for happiness, where shall we find it ? Should we 
not examine the past, there search for those who dis- 
covered it, and inquire from them the way that leads to 
it ? Well, ask of the mighty ones of earth and they will 
tell you, with Wolsey in the play, that they were dazzled 
with the world's greatness and lost it. Ask of the 
world's heroes, and you will find them, though con- 
querors of nations, the slaves of some petty passion ; like 
Canute in his pride whipping the w 7 aves of the ocean. 

Ask philosophers and men of learning; they will tell 
you that their speculations were Utopian, their ideas the 
dreams of heated fancy, impossible of realization. Is 
there then no voice from the past ? Has the purpose of 
life never been attained? Yes, there is a voice; the 
voice of a Christian Army bearing in its midst the 
standard of the Cross, and testifying to future genera- 
tions that there was One on this earth who asserted that 
He was God and proved it; and, teaching through Him, 
and Him alone, can we expect to arrive at that goal 
which brings with it happiness eternal. Choose then 
between the testimony of failure, given by the world, and 
that of success, given by the faithful followers of Christ ? 

This truth, that we are to model ourselves upon 
Christ, is contained in the Scriptures. But mark; on 
two occasions only throughout the New Testament, does 

115 



XI. SERMON. 

the Eternal Father deign to speak. We read that Christ 
went to be baptized by St. John, and that after he had 
gone up out of the water the Heavens were opened and 
a voice was heard, saying: "This is My beloved Son, 
in whom I am well pleased." Here then is the testimony 
of the Father to the humility of His Son, who was 
baptized by a mere man. And why does the Father 
give such testimony if it is not to make known to us, that 
if we would be pleasing to Him, our Father, we must, 
like His Divine Son, humble ourselves. In the same 
Evangelist, St. Matthew, we read also that our Blessed 
Lord prior to His passion went up with Peter, and 
James, and John, into a high mountain, and was trans- 
figured before them. We can well imagine how beauti- 
ful must have been the vision when we hear Peter in a 
moment of ecstacy cry out : " Lord, it is good for us 
to be here ; if Thou willst let us make three tabernacles, 
one for Thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias." It 
was the effulgence of the Divine Xature manifesting 
itself through the humanity of Christ. How ravishing 
must have been the sight which could make Peter so far 
forget himself as to imagine that they could always re- 
main there. While Peter was speaking, behold a bright 
cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the 
clouds, saying: "This is My beloved Son in whom I 
am well pleased; hear ye Him." Here is again the testi- 
mony of the Father to the Son. This teaches us that if 
we would share in His glory, we must partake of the bit- 
ter chalice of His suffering. Hear ye Him, follow Him, 
listen to Him, and He too will bear testimony that if 
you would share in the glory of Tabor, you must partici- 
pate in the sufferings of Calvary. 

Has Christ then told us that we must imitate him? 
Examine the life led by our Blessed Lord and ask your- 
selves why this plentiful redemption of man? Would 
not the justice of the Father be appeased by but a sigh 
of His Divine Son? One drop of His blood at the cir- 

116 



CHRIST THE TRUE MODEL OF THE CHRISTIAN. 

cumcision would have been sufficient for a thousand 
worlds. Why then that life of thirty-three years in 
poverty and want? Was not it to teach us poverty of 
spirit ? Why that submission to Joseph and Mary ? 
Was it not to teach us obedience? Why that fast of 
forty days in the desert? Was it not to teach us to 
mortify our desires ? Why that temptation by Satan ? 
Why that crucifixion ? Was it not to teach us resis- 
tance to the promptings of the evil one, and that we 
must crucify our passions and inclinations ? Yes, my 
Jesus ! We now understand the force of the expression : 
" Learn of Me that I am meek and humble of heart." 
" He who wishes to come after Me let him take up his 
cross and follow Me." " I have given you an example 
that, as I have done to you, so do you also." 

The Heavenly Father therefore demands this imita- 
tion, his Divine Son likewise calls on us to follow Him, 
and the Church during its existence has everywhere 
taught the same in her Doctrines and Sacraments. St. 
Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, writes to the Romans 
inculcating this doctrine: " For whom He foreknew, He 
also predestined to be made conformable to the image of 
His Son." Hence then, conformity with the Son of God 
is not only a matter of precept, but it is given as a mark 
of predestination. And this divine saying of the Apostle 
Paul has been verified in all the Saints of the Church. 
Their sanctity, their holiness of life, their spirit of pen- 
ance, their humility, all their virtues flow from that life- 
giving origin of virtue; our Head, Jesus Christ Our 
Lord. If then we wish to imitate their lives ; if we 
would be holy, would be humble, we must be united to 
that head ; we must be living members of the body of 
Jesus Christ. To make you such, is the whole object of 
the Church upon earth. Why is it that she gathers her 
children Sunday after Sunday around her Altar ? Why 
is it that her Ministers preach to you time after time a 
Doctrine you have heard again and again? And when 

117 



XI. SERMON. 

he does preach to you, what is he supposed to do ? To 
expound the Gospel, to show you from it what the life of 
Christ has been upon this earth; to extract the practical 
part of that life; to show you the virtues practised by 
our Divine Lord; to hold them up to your admiration, 
oblige you to imitate them, oblige you to become a mem- 
ber of the suffering body of Christ upon this earth — for 
remember that His was a life of suffering — if you would 
be a member of His glorious body in the life to come. 

Again, the Church in her Sacraments is ever teaching 
the same truths. Have you ever reflected upon your 
reception of Baptism ? You were carried, as yet but an 
infant, and there at that font were made for you the 
most solemn promises that you would be a true imitator 
of Jesus Christ. There the Minister of the Holy Sacra- 
ment signed your forehead and your breast with the 
sign of the Cross, and told you to receive that sign both 
on your forehead and in your heart ; to be in your life, 
as it becomes one to be who is a temple of the Holy 
Ghost. He then asked you if you renounced Satan ; and 
the answer came firmly: "I do renounce him." And 
all his works? "I do renounce them." And all his 
pomps ? A third time came the answer, still more firmly : 
"I do renounce them." Having renounced Satan and 
his works, he enrolls you on the side of Christ and His 
Holy Church. Do you believe in God ? Do you believe 
in Jesus Christ His only Son ? Do you believe in the 
Holy Ghost, and in the Holy Catholic Church ? And a 
third time, like Peter's profession of love, went forth 
from your innocent heart, sealed with the cross of Christ, 
your profession of Faith : " I do believe." Then came 
the solemn words: "I baptize thee in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost! I re- 
ceive thee into the Church of God, into the temple of 
Christ! I admit thee as a citizen into the city of God 
upon earth, that thou- mayst be afterwards enrolled as -a 
citizen of His Heavenly Kingdom in the everlasting 

118 



CHRIST THE TRUE MODEL OF THE CHRISTIAN. 

hereafter/' Then it was that you were made a member 
of Christ's mystical body. You grew up, the time of 
infancy passed by, you had arrived at the age of reason, 
and the Church again cited you to appear before her 
minister. This time it was to renew your former 
promises, and to be confirmed in your desire of being a 
true follower of Christ. You knelt on that day — which 
is a day of Heaven spent upon earth — before your Bish- 
op; again the Sign of Salvation was impressed upon 
your forehead and you heard the words ; " Signo te signo 
crucis," " I sign thee with the sign of the Cross, I con- 
firm thee with the Chrism of Salvation in the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ! " 
And you went away with the peace, the sacramental 
grace of God dwelling in your heart, with your name 
inscribed in the army of Christ. You had been made 
His soldier, and you were now to go to battle w T ith the 
enemies of your salvation whom you renounced in your 
Baptism: and for this were you cited to be again re- 
minded, that in the world, you had to follow and imitate 
your Leader. But full well He knew the difficulties be- 
fore you; full well did He understand that the soul would 
grow weak, that there would be times when that poor 
Christian would return crushed, beaten down, and al- 
most despairing of success. What then was to be the 
remedy ? Was this imitation of His life and virtues to 
be given up ? 'No, but a still stronger reminder that 
you were to imitate Him was given, and this time He 
would, so far as consistent with your own individual 
personality, deify you with Himself. His flesh was to 
become your flesh, His blood was to course in your veins. 
This is the mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist, where 
you are made one body with Christ Himself, and in con- 
sequence your actions should be like His. 

And so, were we to examine all the different Sacra- 
ments and Ministrations of the Church, we would find 
her ever and always reminding us of the life of her 

119 



XI. SERMOK . 

Divine Founder and encouraging us in its imitation. 
Nor is there anything more reasonable. When God 
fashioned us out of the dust of earth, we read that He 
made us like to Himself. Man by his disobedience de- 
stroyed that image, that likeness which existed in the 
soul. Then came God to save us; the order of Grace 
was instituted, and as we were before like God in the 
order of nature, why in the order of grace should we not 
likewise reproduce within us that picture which was de- 
faced by the sin of man. " For this," says St. Bona- 
ventura, " was the Son of God sent from Heaven, in 
order that He might open for us the way of virtue; that 
He might teach us by Himself ; so that as we were created 
in His image by nature, we may likewise become like to 
Him in His life, by the imitation of His virtues." 

We need but appeal to the name you bear for a proof 
of this doctrine. You are called by a name which is 
known in every clime, expressed in every tongue, and 
admired in every land. You are called by a name, 
baptized in the blood of martyrs, dedicated by time and 
consecrated by centuries; first expressed by the Roman 
and applied by him as a term of reproach and of 
ignominy. It has broken down the boundaries of that 
Pagan Empire and is to-day a name of honor and of uni- 
versal application; that name is the name Christian, a 
follower of Christ. " The definition of Christianity," 
says St. Basil, " is the imitation of Christ : " Definitio 
Christianismi est Imitatio Christi." If then you are a 
true Christian you must be about the business of your 
Master, His mission is also your mission, and you must 
endeavor to set up His empire within your own heart and 
the hearts of others. In order to do that, you must as 
St. Gregory Nazianzen says, express Christ in your life. 

The obligation then is certain; what then must be 
the characteristics of this imitation ? 

It should be serious ; like the labor of a painter who 
would give to the world a work of art. The painter first 

120 



CHRIST THE TRUE MODEL OF THE CHRISTIAN. 

obtains a model; studies it thoroughly so well that it is 
always forcing itself upon his mind. He then begins 
with fixed eye and steady hand to draw the lines, touches 
it here, corrects there, and goes on with delicate care- 
fulness until he develops the lines of similitude and ex- 
pression in his picture. His work is then done. 
Tedious it was, and at times he faltered; it is now per- 
fect and his delight is at its highest. So too with us. 
We must have our Model, we must study His character, 
we must study His actions and then begin to imitate Him 
in His sweetness, amiability, and disinterestedness. The 
work will be difficult, at times we too will falter, but 
courage! a strong arm sustains you, helps you in your 
endeavors, and you will see your efforts crowned with 
success. 

It should be universal; that is, extended to all our ac- 
tions. We must remember that Christ our model lived 
upon earth as we now do ; He passed as we do from youth 
to manhood and He too like us mixed with the people of 
the world; but always remember that He was not of the 
world. Like us He performed every-day actions, like us 
He had His parents to obey. Like us He had His obliga- 
tions to His neighbor, like us He too had to work and earn 
His living ; like us He had His duties to God the Father. 
There is no one of us no matter what we may be in life, 
but can compare our daily actions with those of our 
Divine Lord. And my friends, if we would but do this ; 
if we would but put that Model of virtue before our eyes 
in our very serious undertakings, and ask ourselves if 
our Blessed Lord were to perform this action how would 
He do it ; how many mistakes in life would be daily 
avoided, how many trying temptations overcome, and 
how many more souls would be partakers of true happi- 
ness ? It seems to me that if this one idea could be 
realized on this earth, misery would be banished from 
the world. 

It should be constant: that is continual, not the work 

121 



XI. SERMON. 

of a day, of a week or of a month, but the work of a life 
time. Our enemy is like a roaring lion going about 
seeking w T hom he may devour, always lying in wait for 
us. Hence we must be always on our guard, constant 
in our imitation. If not, we may expect to be surprised ; 
for the agents of the Devil and the agents of the World 
are many, and their zeal in their struggle against Christ 
is only equalled by the hatred they bear Him. 

Finally my friends it must be THE WOEK OF 
THE HEAET. It must be a whole-souled undertak- 
ing. If not, we shall tire, become discouraged, grow 
disheartened, and give up the good work. Throw your- 
selves then heartily into it, and by so doing you will 
make it a labor of love; and wherever love is the motor 
labor is not conceivable, because, as St. Augustine says: 
" There is no labor where there is love, or if there be, 
it is the labor of love." Enter into this w T ork then with 
loving hearts, daily set up your model and daily com- 
pare your life with it. Within the recesses of the heart 
one will discover pride; in the model the deepest humil- 
ity prevails. Another will find intemperance of some 
kind or another; in the model the greatest sobriety. In 
another again the passion of lust prevails; in the model 
purity and chastity. So each one comparing himself in 
this manner continually with his model, he will find that 
he, a member of Christ, is given to some vice, whilst in 
his Divine Master exists the corresponding virtue. His 
efforts then must be to rid himself of that vice, and to 
ask his Blessed Master to obtain for him the opposing 
virtue. This will appear difficult, but remember my 
friends, the life of a Christian is " a warfare upon 
earth ; " and surely if we but glance at the life of our 
Divine Lord we must of necessity blush at our weakness 
and cry out with St. Bernard : " that it is a shame to be 
found as an easy loving member of a body whose head is 
pillowed on a thorny crown." 

122 



XII. SERMON. 
THE MATERNITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 



" Woman, behold thy son." 

John xix. 



Some eighteen hundred years ago had we been sum- 
moned to the Hill of Calvary, our eyes would have 
witnessed a most touching tragedy. We would have be- 
held the God-man Christ Jesus our Lord shedding His 
blood upon the Altar of the Cross for the Salvation of 
the world. 

We would have gathered lovingly about that Cross, 
and knowing that it was our Saviour who was in His 
agony, we would have listened most anxiously and at- 
tentively to every word that should fall from His sacred 
lips. We would feel that they were meant for us, that 
they were addressed to us, and therefore we would 
treasure them up, even as we do the last words of a dying 
friend or relative. 

Standing in the midst of the motley throng that sur- 
rounds Him, we would have noticed the presence of Mary 
His Mother. ]STo doubt her presence there would be a 
source of astonishment, we would wonder how she could 
stand by and witness the cruel soldiers nailing her son 
and her God to the Cross. We would ask ourselves how 
a Mother could bring herself to that terrible place of 
execution, how she could have stood by and endured the 

123 



XII. SERMON. 

sight of those cruel tortures that her son was made to 
endure; and finally, how she could receive Him in her 
arms when taken down from the Cross, and assist in 
placing Him in the cold, stony sepulchre. All this would 
astonish us and yet upon reflection we would say that as 
in all the circumstances that surrounded our dear Lord's 
life, Mary His Mother must be present at this terrible 
moment in order that the divine plan of man's redemp- 
tion might be faithfully fulfilled. It must have been 
for a reason known to God alone ; mayhap He will reveal 
it before His eyes close in death upon that Cross. 

Again, in looking over that group which surrounds 
the fatal tree we shall recognize the figure of another 
much loved among men by our Blessed Lord. It is St. 
John, his dear, his well beloved disciple. Strange too, 
that he is found here at the moment of execution; 
strange that he should stand by and see his Master and 
his God thus cruelly treated. We should think that, 
like the other disciples, he would be absent and con- 
cealed, lest the soldiers should apprehend him and put 
him to death. We would think that his sadness and 
grief would bid him depart from the place where his 
Saviour and his friend was dying the cruel death of a 
public convict. Again upon reflection we would say 
that God must have some wise end in view. It is for some 
purpose of His own that Mary, His Mother, is obliged to 
witness that sight, and that St. John must look helplessly 
on, and offer no word of protest against the mob that is 
hooting and yelling at the foot of the Cross, as they cast 
lots for the garments worn by him. 

But what is this purpose of God ? Why should His 
tender Mother and His beloved disciple St. John, be 
obliged to stand by and witness the bloody spectacle of 
His death ? Stand and listen ! Perhaps our dying Lord 
will tell us. 

He looks down from the Cross, He sees His Mother 
and the disciple whom He loved standing at His feet, 

124 



THE MATERNITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 

His lips move and He is heard to say to His Mother, not 
Mother, but : " Woman, behold thy son." And to the 
disciple — the sacred scripture does not say to St. John — 
" Behold thy Mother." Oh! now we understand why 
those two should be found at the Cross, we now realize 
why they have to stand by till the bitter end and watch 
the sufferings of the God-man ; Jesus had given Himself, 
He had died for the world, but He remembered that in 
the beginning of old, it had been said to the serpent in 
the garden : " I will put enmities between thee and the 
woman, between her seed and thy seed, she shall crush 
thy head and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel." There- 
fore he said not Mother, but: " Woman" — the very 
woman spoken of in the garden — " Woman, behold thy 
son." For, as Eve the first of women was the mother of 
the whole human fallen race, so art thou the Mother 
of the whole human race reclaimed and put in pos- 
session of their former dignity by my death. There- 
fore, in the person of John behold the whole human race : 
" Woman, behold thy son." 

This truth, that Mary was given to us to be our 
Mother, is one which we have often heard, but upon 
which we have reflected but little ; perhaps if we were 
asked to assign a reason for calling Mary our Mother we 
might not be able to give one. Let us endeavor then to 
get an idea of what is meant when we say that the 
Mother of God is our Mother. 

No one who admits that Christ is God and that He 
came to found a religion upon this earth, but will like- 
wise admit that we should imitate Christ in our lives. 
In other words, we have to love Him, and to love Him 
we must keep his commandments. " Learn of me," 
says Christ Himself: " That I am meek and humble 
of heart," and again: " He who keepeth my command- 
ments, he it is that loveth me." 

We have then to become like Christ, we have to live 
His very life if we are to be considered followers of His, 

125 



XII. SERMON. 

To make this truth the more striking, He Himself has 
made use of that beautiful comparison of the Vine. He 
tells us that we must abide in Him, for as the branch 
cannot bear fruit unless it abide in the vine, so neither 
can we unless we abide in Him. 

"I am the vine, you the branches, he that abideth in 
me and I in him the same beareth much fruit." 

We have then to become one with Christ and this 
union is effected by the Sacraments. 

In the Sacrament of Baptism we are so to speak en- 
grafted upon the vine, then it is that we become mem- 
bers of Christ's body. Then it is that we are born into 
the supernatural order, to be nourished and to be kept 
in that state by feeding upon the Holy Sacrament of the 
Eucharist. 

The Eucharist gives us the body and blood, the soul 
and divinity of Jesus Christ. In this Sacrament we are 
made brothers of Christ and co-heirs of the kingdom of 
heaven. Therein it is that we become the children of 
God the Father; for God the Father looking down upon 
us beholds in us the likeness of His Son ; for, being en- 
grafted upon Him we have grown like Him, having fed 
upon His Body and Blood in the Eucharist we are one with 
Him, and therefore children by adoption of our Heavenly 
Father. 

But how are we children of Mary ? In the same man- 
ner that we are children of the Eternal Father. We are 
her children by adoption, for Christ is the son of God 
the Father and :at the same time He is the son of the 
Virgin Mary, and as we are sons adopted by the heavenly 
Father, so likewise are we sons of His Mother Mary 
through adoption. 

Mary is the true real Mother of Christ. She looks 
upon us as her children, since we are brothers of Jesus 
Christ her Son, and co-heirs of His kingdom. But there 
is still another reason why we are Mary's children by 
adoption and why we should call her our Mother. It i& 

126 



THE MATERNITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 

to be found in the scene upon the Cross, to which we al- 
luded in the beginning. We read in St. John these 
words : " There stood by the Cross of Jesus, His 
Mother ; " when Jesus therefore had seen His Mother, 
and the disciple whom He loved, He saith to His Mother : 
" Woman, behold thy Son," after that He saith to the 
disciple : " Behold thy Mother," and from that time the 
disciple took her to his own. Now we must remember 
that the scripture has a literal and a spiritual signifi- 
cance and so in these words we will find that the literal 
sense, that is to say, taking the words as they are, they 
bestow upon St. John a remarkable privilege; but tak- 
ing them in a spiritual sense a remarkable privilege is 
conferred upon the whole world, for they establish the 
spiritual maternity of Mary over mankind. 

But you ask how can we show this? How am I to 
understand that these words spoken to St. John were 
addressed to the whole human race. Well, study them 
closely and you will observe that they were adapted to 
the whole human race, and for a three-fold reason. 

Jesus Christ is our Saviour, our Mediator, our High 
Priest; as such therefore, His every action, His every 
word, should be for the instruction and advantage of the 
whole human race. He must in a word be all ours, and 
so the Prophet in announcing His coming upon the world 
considered Him as peculiarly the possession of the world. 
Hence Isaias said: "A child is given," not to you or 
me or Mary His mother, but a " child is given to US." 
" A son is born " not to you or to me or to Mary His 
Mother, but " a son is born unto US." And again, the 
Angel announcing His birth to the shepherds who were 
minding their flocks tells them : " This day is born to 
you " — that is to mankind, to the world — " a Saviour." 
Therefore He has been given to us, He is our possession ; 
hence all His thoughts, all His words, all His actions 
must be consecrated and given to us. We must have 
some share in all His designs and in all His plans. 

127 



XII. SERMON. 

If He perform anything without taking us, the whole 
human family, into consideration, He is derogating from 
the entirety, the perfections of His offering — or rather 
of the offering which the Father has made when He sent 
Him upon this world — for the benefit of the whole 
human race throughout space and time. ISTow this is a 
rule that the Fathers of the Church have always em- 
ployed when commenting upon the Gospel narratives; 
they have always explained Christ's words and Christ's 
actions as they are recorded in the Sacred Scriptures as 
affecting all men of whatever age or of whatever coun- 
try; and they did this in consequence of the nature of 
Christ. Everything He said and everything He did was 
performed by Him as the Saviour of the world. 

Again we must remember and bear in mind that 
Christ's whole life from the very first moment of His 
existence was one continuous sacrifice. 

We, the human race, the object for which He offered 
up the sacrifice of His life, must have been therefore 
ever before His mind, ever uppermost in His thoughts. 
Can we then suppose for an instant that when Christ 
came to die, when He was stretched upon the altar of 
sacrifice, a victim for us, that we were absent from His 
mind ? Can we suppose for an instant that when He 
came to perform that highest of actions after His sacri- 
fice upon the Cross, that action of disposing of His 
Blessed Mother, that we were forgotten ? That He no 
longer thought of us ? Oh, no ! It is then, and in that 
very place that we recognize His love for us; He is 
dying, He is leaving us, but before parting with us, He 
would say a consoling word and offer us the object most 
dear to His heart. " Behold thy Mother." 'Tis then 
in the presence of her dying Son, that we take her and 
recognize her as our Mother, and thank our dying Lord 
for the great gift He has given us. 

To make this reason the more convincing, we have 
only to take the other texts of scripture wherever the 

128 



THE MATERNITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 

Mother of our Lord is mentioned, and we shall find that 
whenever He spoke to her publicly or had to make al- 
lusion to her, He always did it in a manner instructive 
to all mankind. Thus you remember that He was once 
lost for three days; and we are told that Mary His 
Mother sought Him sorrowing, and finally finding Him 
seated in the midst of the doctors of the temple she re- 
minded Him of her sorrow in seeking Him, and said to 
Him : " Son, why hast thou done so to us ? Behold 
thy Father and I have sought Thee sorrowing." He re- 
plied, " What is this that you sought Me, did you not 
know that I must be about my Father's business ? " Now 
surely Christ could not have meant to reprimand His 
Mother, He could not have meant to reproach her, for 
she had done nothing deserving reproach, she had but 
performed her duty, she had but sought after Him, who 
was her child when lost. But he took occasion from 
this to give a lesson to all Christian parents; that they 
were not to interefere with their children when they 
sought to follow out and obey God's law ; that they should 
not interfere with their children when they endeavored 
to perform the work which Almighty God had allotted 
to them, when He saw fit to call them to a religious state 
of life wherein they could serve Him more faithfully. 

Again, as our Saviour was preaching one day, a 
woman in the crowd, enraptured by His eloquence, cries 
out : " Blessed is the womb that bore Thee and the paps 
that gave Thee suck." Our Lord wishing His words to 
be instructive to mankind, replied and said to her : " Nay 
Blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it." 
On another occasion a man interrupted our Lord in His 
discourse and told Him that His Mother and brethren 
were seeking Him to speak to Him, and again He said: 
" Who is my Mother, and who are my brethren ? They 
who hear the word of God and keep it, they are my 
Mother and Brother and Sister." 

From all these texts of Scripture wherein His Blessed 
9 129 



XII. SERMON. 

Mother is alluded to, it is evident that He had always at 
heart the common good, in other words that He ever re- 
membered His mission, that He ever spoke for all. 
Then more than ever have we a right to suppose that He 
spoke for the human race and the world at large, for 
His words were pronounced from the very altar of sacri- 
fice. 

We have a threefold reason for believing these words, 
spoken from the Cross, to be addressed to the whole 
human race. The first is taken as you have seen, from 
the nature of Christ's Ministry as a High Priest. The 
second is taken from the words addressed to the Blessed 
Virgin : " Woman, behold thy Son." What does He 
mean by styling her Woman instead of Mother ? We 
have to look for an explanation of that word, and we find 
it in the Chapter of Genesis, wherein it was said to the 
serpent : " I will place enmities between thee and the 
woman, she shall crush thy head." We look for the ful- 
fillment of these wonders throughout the Old Testament. 
We only meet with figures of the woman, never with 
THE woman herself. It is only on the summit of that 
mountain to which the eyes of the world have ever been 
turned either through hatred or love. It is only upon 
the summit of that mountain which is the centre of the 
world's attraction and hate, that we hear the Incarnate 
Word itself uttering the fondest of eulogies, the finest 
of panegyrics, saying not Mother but " Woman, behold 
thy Son." It was as though He said: " O, wonderful 
Woman, behold the whole human race foretold from the 
beginning regenerated, thou standing at the foot of the 
tree, the tree of the Cross, hast brought forth salvation; 
even as that other woman, that representative woman, 
standing at the foot of the tree of good and evil, brought 
forth destruction upon mankind. 

One other reason still remains, and then we have done. 
That is taken from the words of our Blessed Lord ad- 
dressed to St. John. In speaking to St. John He does 

130 



THE MATERNITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 

not make use of the Apostle's name, He called him the 
Disciple. The Sacred Scripture says that after that He 
saith to the Disciples: " Behold thy Mother." There- 
fore our Blessed Lord spoke to him as a Disciple, as an 
Apostle, and as such He represented the Christian people. 
For what is an Apostle? He is chosen by God to work 
for the salvation of the souls of men. He is a man who 
shares in the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, a man that is 
clothed with the powers of Jesus Christ. Hence like 
Jesus Christ Himself, he is a representative man, a man 
holding the destiny of the people in his hands, and as 
such our Blessed Lord spoke to the Disciple — not to 
St. John— and said : " Behold thy Mother." 

We recognize then our Dear Lady's place; that she 
is by divine appointment our Mother, and as such we 
hail Her upon this the feast of her Maternity. We 
recognize the Church's right to place Her before us as 
our Mother as well as the Mother of Christ, and as such 
we will ever pray to Her, not fearing that we will thus 
detract from God's glory. 

We will be devoutly attached to Her for we begin to 
realize that it is God's own wish made known to us even 
upon Calvary's Altar, and even as that Mother was 
found upon that Altar, so shall we keep Her upon our 
altars and speak to Her as children would speak to a 
mother; asking Her to pray for us, to intercede for us, 
not to permit us her children, born to Her at the foot of 
the Cross, to fall under the power of Satan. 

Hail her frequentlv with that address of the An^el: 
"HAIL MAEY FULL OF GBACE, BLESSED AET 
THOU AMOXGST WOMEK" We do not fear to 
use such language; it is the language of Scripture that 
she is Blessed of women; that she is in very deed our 
sullied nature's solitary boast ; the one that stands alone 
unsullied and undefiled. And then too frequently make 
use of that other prayer of the Church wherein we style 
Her the Mother of God and admit Her great power; 

131 



XII. SERMON. 

"HOLT MAET, MOTHEE OF GOB, FEAY FOE 
US THY CHILDEEN, NOW AND AT THE HOUE 
OF OUE DEATH." Eest assured She who has all a 

mother's tenderness, will pray for us without ceasing, 
will intercede for us until She shall have brought us 
from this land of exile to our true home with Him who 
died for us. 



132 



XIII. SERMON. 
FEAST OF THE HOLY ANGELS. 



" They are ministering spirits, sent to minister for those 
who shall receive the inheritance of salvation.'' 1 

heb. I. 14. 



We come to treat of the invisible works of God. We 
style Him in the Apostle's creed the Creator of heaven 
and earth, the creator of the visible and the invisible 
world. We will confine ourselves to the invisible world, 
the Angels. It is a world that does not fall under our 
senses, it is situated in a region above us ; we cannot see 
it, we cannot hear the voices of those bright spirits, but 
still we believe in their existence, we believe that they 
are spiritual in their natures and we believe moreover 
that they are appointed by God Himself to be our guar- 
dians and keepers. 

Hence, in order that we may be able to give a reason 
for the faith and the belief that is in us, we will ask our- 
selves these three questions : Are there any such beings, 
and if so what is their nature, and how are they occupied ? 
These are certainly interesting questions, for as we have 
already said the Angels do not fall under our observation; 
they are beings whom we do not visibly see before us, 
they are beings whose words we never hear, they are not 
of this world but of a world outside of us ; and hence it 
is that our questions are interesting for we are making 

133 



XIII. SERMON. 

inquiries about strange beings who inhabit a world that 
is not ours. 

But you will say, if I cannot see them, if I cannot feel 
them, if I cannot hear them, how then am I to know that 
they exist, how am I to know that there are such things ? 

In the same manner, my dear friends, as we know the 
other mysteries of our religion, we know it upon the au- 
thority of an infallible teacher, the Church who declares 
that this truth is to be found in the Sacred Scriptures. 
Reading over the Old and the New Testament, we will 
get many glimpses and many revelations of that unseen 
world that cannot be gainsaid or denied. Opening its 
first book, that of Genesis, we will read of the destruc- 
tion of Sodom and Gomorrah. These two cities were to 
be destroyed on account of their sins. The curse of God 
hung over them and in the divine mind it had been de- 
creed that Sodom was to be no more. Whilst the wrath 
of God was hanging over the city, the Angels came to the 
house of a just man named Lot and remained with him 
during the night. No sooner had the light of morning 
appeared in the heaven, than the Angels pressed Lot to 
depart from the city ; " Arise," said they, " take thy wife 
and thy two daughters, which thou hast lest thou also 
perish in the wickedness of the city." 

And as he lingered they took his hand and the hand 
of his wife and two daughters, and brought him forth 
and set him without the city and there they spoke to him 
saying 

" Save thy life ; look not back neither stay thou in 
all the Country about, but save thyself in the mountain 
lest thou be also consumed." 

Again in the same book we read that God wished to 
try the obedience of Abraham, and what do you suppose 
was his trial? He was told to take his only son Isaac 
and to go into the land of vision and there to sacrifice 
him as a holocaust upon a mountain which would be 
shown him. 

134 



FEAST OF THE HOLY ANGELS. 

The father, obedient to God's call arises, takes with 
him his youthful son, and immediately sets out for the 
mountain whereon the sacrifice is to be offered. In three 
days' time the place is found, the wood for the sacrifice 
is brought, the young Isaac is bound hands and feet and 
laid upon the altar. His Father, Abraham, takes the 
sword and raises it above his head, and behold, suddenly 
his hand is stayed, he hears a voice calling to him and 
saying : " Abraham ! Abraham ! Lay not thy hand 
upon the boy, neither do thou anything to him ! " That 
voice we are told was the voice of an angel. 

Again, in the book of Exodus we read of a promise 
made by God to His chosen people; that He would give 
them His angel to guide them ; and in the book of Tobias 
we read of a beautiful young man who was the companion 
of the young Tobias, and he was none other than an angel. 

But not in the Old Testament alone do we find proofs 
of the existence of angels. Opening the first chapter of 
the Gospels we read of a holy old priest named Zachary, 
who, one day while offering incense in the Holy pf Holies, 
beheld an angel standing on the right side of the altar; 
and seeing him, Zachary was troubled, and fear fell upon 
him. But the angel said to him : " Zachary, fear not, 
for thy prayer is heard and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear 
thee a son and thou shalt call his name John." And 
Zachary said to the angel : " Whereby shall I know this ? " 
And the angel answering, said to him : " I am Gabriel 
who stand before God, and am sent to speak to thee, and 
to bring thee these good tidings." And again, in the 
same chapter we read of a young virgin who heard the 
words : " Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee, 
blessed art thou among women. Behold, thou shalt con- 
ceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, and thou shalt 
call his name Jesus." The one who spoke to her, says the 
Scripture, was the Angel Gabriel, who was sent from God 
unto the city of Galilee called Nazareth, to announce to 
Marv the Virgin, that she was to be the Mother of God. 

135 



XIII. SERMON. 

Turning to the first chapter of St. Matthew we find 
that Joseph was greatly troubled in mind and had secretly 
resolved to send Mary away. But while he thought on 
these things says the sacred writer, behold the Angel of 
the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying : " Joseph 
son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary, thy wife, 
for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.'' 

And again, in the same Evangelist, we read of the Sad- 
ducees, who thought to lead our Blessed Lord into a con- 
tradiction. A woman had seven husbands, and they asked 
Him whose w T ife she shall be in the resurrection. Our Lord 
makes answer and says : " After the Resurrection they 
shall neither marry, nor be given in marriage, but shall 
be," — how ? what shall they be like — " as the Angels of 
God in heaven." On another occasion when our dear 
Saviour was instructing His Disciples He called a little 
child to Him; placing it in the midst of them, He tells 
them how careful they should be lest they might scan- 
dalize such a little one, and if they should happen to do 
so, that it w T ould be better for them to have a millstone tied 
about their necks and be dropped into the depths of the 
sea. Then He goes on to say : " Take heed ! Beware 
that you despise not one of these little ones, for I say to 
you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my 
Father, who is in heaven." What stronger proofs, my 
friends, could we desire, or what stronger could we obtain. 
We hear Christ, who was God Himself, speaking of the 
Resurrection and telling us that our manner of living in 
the next world will be like that of the angels, and telling 
us that the angels of those little ones were continually 
gazing into the face of His Father in heaven. Surely 
the most incredulous must then admit that there are an- 
gels, nay more, that there are multitudes of them ; for 
the Prophet Daniel and St. John who caught a glimpse 
of the heavenly Jerusalem, tells us that there are millions 
of them. And the Holy Fathers commenting on that 
beautiful Parable, which tells us of the Shepherd who 

136 



feast of the holy angels. 

leaves his ninety-nine sheep and goes in search of the one 
that has gone astray, the Holy Fathers thus commenting, 
tell us that we upon this earth, all of us, from Adam, first 
of men, down to the day of doom, the whole human race, 
is that one sheep that has gone astray, for which Jesus 
Christ the good Shepherd, left the ninety-nine in heaven 
and came to seek us, the lost one. 

What a magnificent idea does this give us of the num- 
ber of those heavenly spirits. Might we not compare 
them to the sands upon the sea shore, to the drops of water 
falling in a rain storm, to the numberless leaves that are 
shaken by the winds of heaven ? 

But what is the nature of the Angels ? Are they com- 
posed as we are, of body and soul ? At times we see them 
represented in pictures as having bodies like to our own ; 
at another time we see them in the form of infants, hav- 
ing wings and apparently flying hither and thither. Are 
we to think from all this that such is their nature and 
appearance ? ~No. They are pure spirits, spiritual sub- 
stances; and are only thus represented to remind us that 
some have actually appeared in that form to meii. They 
could not be seen as spirits and therefore assumed the 
shape of bodies ; or they are represented as children to 
remind us of their innocence ; or with wings to give us 
an idea of their swiftness in passing from one place to 
another. We are told in the Scriptures that they are 
spirits, that they are not subject to any ills or infirmities, 
and are destined never to have an end; that they are im- 
mortal. 

Thus we read in the Apocalypse of St. John that he 
was commanded to write to the seven bishops of the 
Churches of Asia: " Grace be unto you, and peace from 
Him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from 
the seven spirits that are before Him." Christ Himself 
called the fallen Angels by the name of spirits. 

We read in the Gospel of St. Luke that one day the 
twelve Disciples came to our Blessed Lord filled with joy 

137 



XIII. SERMON. 

and said to Him: " Lord, the devils are also subject to 
us in Thy name." He turned and said to them: " I saw 
Satan as lightning falling from Heaven. Behold I have 
given you power to tread upon serpents and upon all the 
powers of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Yet 
rejoice not in this that spirits are subject unto you, but 
rejoice in this that your names are written in heaven." 
They are then spirits, having no body; they are like to 
our souls, they are like to God Himself, endowed with an 
intelligence far superior to ours. 

They know God and His perfections. They know His 
works of creation. At first sight they know more than 
we can ever know or discover by our reason or by study 
and application. They see effects and causes, and thus 
it is that they can conjecture to a probability what is 
going to happen; they can see our actions, but they can- 
not tell what is passing in our hearts; that is a knowl- 
edge and power which Almighty God reserves to Himself. 

Thus it is that so many things can be done through 
the agency of the devil. Thus it is that at times, by 
means of fortune telling, things hidden or stolen may be 
found, and this is the very reason why we should have 
nothing to do with such practices. We know full well 
that God alone knows all things ; w r e know moreover that 
the spirits both good and bad, on account of their supe- 
rior intelligence and gift of knowledge, know things 
better than we, and consequently may impart that knowl- 
edge to others ; but we know full well that when any one 
tells us truths regarding our future, and tells such truths 
to every one no matter what their condition may be, such 
a person does not derive that knowledge from God. Such 
persons are not saints; neither do they derive that knowl- 
edge from the good angels, w 7 ho have no connection with 
the wicked ones of this world. Therefore, as our only 
conclusion, we may be sure that such knowledge, when 
true, comes through evil spirits who may at some time 
from their own intelligence and from what they know 

138 



FEAST OF THE HOLY ANGELS. 

of persons past and present, conjecture to a nicety what 
will happen. Hence it is that we are not allowed to con- 
sult fortune tellers, for in so doing we converse with evil 
spirits, we turn aside from our Creator and pay reverence 
to His enemy, the devil. We are guilty of a species of 
idolatry. 

But what are the duties of the angels ? How are they 
occupied ? They are chanting the canticles of glory be- 
fore God in heaven, where they are destined to remain 
for all eternity. They are ever, as we are told in Holy 
Writ, praising God, singing : " Holy ! Holy ! Holy ! " 
Such is the duty of the Seraphim and Cherubim, who are 
the highest in the heavenly court. Then there are the 
Archangels who are ever ready to perform God's will 
whatever it may be; such were they who appeared to 
Isaac, to Jacob, to Samuel and to Tobias in the Old Tes- 
tament; such was the Archangel Gabriel who was sent to 
Zachary, the high priest, to announce the birth of St. John 
the Baptist, and to Mary to announce the mystery of the 
Incarnation. 

Their duty in regard to us is to watch over us, and to 
guard us from all danger and temptations. They pray 
for us and they protect us. We read in the Psalmist that 
" He hath given His angels charge over us/' and we read 
in the Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews " that they are 
ministering spirits, sent to minister for those who shall 
receive the inheritance of Salvation." ]Now we are all 
redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, all called to the 
inheritance of salvation, and therefore we have each and 
everyone of us a ministering spirit like to that Angel of 
Tobias. We have heard our Blessed Lord proclaim the 
same when speaking of the sin of scandalizing little chil- 
dren; He tells us to beware, and not despise one of His 
little ones, " for their angels see the face of His Father 
who is in heaven." 

We have all an angel like that which accompanied 
Tobias. Tou remember that incident in the Old Testa- 

139 



XIII. SERMON. 

ment We are told of the elder Tobias that he was a 
God-fearing and charitable man. He gave of his sub- 
stance to feed the hungry, and often while at table he 
would rise from his meal and go out into the city to bury 
the dead. 

When death was approaching he called his son to him 
— known as the young Tobias — and told him that the 
hour was drawing nigh for his departure from this world, 
and that when Almighty God should have called himself 
and his mother out of this world they wished to be laid 
side by side. He told him above all things else to be 
charitable; never to turn away from the poor without 
bestowing something upon them ; to give abundantly if he 
had plenty, and to give at least a little if he had but 
little. 

Among other things he tells him of a debt that is 
owed him by a man named Gabelus, who lived in a city 
of the Medes, and tells him to seek out some worthy per- 
son to accompany him, and to go to collect the debt. And 
Tobias going forth meets with a beautiful young man al- 
ready prepared for the journey. They start off together, 
the young man as his guide. For some time they are 
absent, when again they appear before the elder Tobias 
with the money which Gabelus had given them. The 
father and son converse together and agree to give the 
stranger one-half of the sum for his services, when lo ! 
the young man discovers himself to them and says to 
them : " When thou didst pray with tears and didst bury 
thy dead, and didst leave thy dinner and hide the dead 
in thy house by day and bury them by night, I offered 
thy prayers to the Lord. I am the Angel Raphael who 
stands before Our Lord." And immediately he disap- 
peared from their sight. 

Here then, you have one of the duties of the angels 
with regard to us. They offer our prayers and our good 
works to the Most High for us. How seldom we think 
of this when we kneel to pray, how seldom when we per- 

140 



FEAST OF THE HOLY ANGELS. 

form a charitable action. If we did, would we not at 
least speak kindly to the poor when we would help them ? 
Let us then, remember the office of the angels. They are 
spirits, praying for us, offering up to Almighty God the 
prayers we are uttering, and the works we are performing 
every day. Another duty they have, that is, like Raphael, 
they accompany us wherever we go; they are our guar- 
dians. As the Psalmist tells us : " The Lord hath given 
His angels charge over us lest we dash our foot against a 
stone." " We shall walk upon the asp and the basilisk, 
Ave shall trample under foot the lion and the dragon." 
Though v/e do not see that faithful friend, still he is ever 
at our side warding off danger and whispering words of 
comfort. Who can tell how many times he may have 
saved our lives; how many times he may have averted 
danger, and how many times he may have put the powers 
of darkness to flight ? If such be their care over us, — 
and we cannot deny it, for we have the testimony of God 
Himself for it — what are our duties towards them? 

In the first place we should honor them and love them. 
We should never forget that the world is filled with an- 
gels. We have them here in this Church, for each one 
of us is accompanied by his guardian friend; we have 
them surrounding our tabernacles and singing the praises 
of God. We have them in our streets and public ways. 
In the midst of our great thoroughfare crowded with 
human souls, Faith bids us see the Guardian Angel at 
each one's side; in the byways and lanes of poverty the 
same consoling Messenger walks by our side cheering us 
onward and upward, whispering into our ears that our 
souls are precious in the sight of God, that He died to 
save us, and that therefore Ave must do all we can to cor- 
respond with the graces Avhich He gi\ T es us. Oh ! Avhat a 
beautiful idea does this giA r e us of God's mercy and good- 
ness ! He Avas not content to quit heaven for us ; He was 
not content to die for us; He was not content to leave 
Himsel upon our altars; but so great was His love for 

141 



XIII. SERMON. 

us that He must give us a bright spirit from heaven to 
journey on with us through this vale of suffering. Well 
indeed, my Divine Saviour, might you say : " What is 
there that I can do for my people that I have not done; 
what is there left undone that could in any way aid in the 
salvation of their souls ? " 

In the second place, we should have the greatest pos- 
sible respect for their presence. They are always w T ith 
us, ever present at our side. These heavenly messengers 
are forever seeing God. They are His ambassadors, and 
therefore we should have the greatest respect for them. 
You know how careful you would be in your language 
before the great ones of this world ; no blaspheming would 
escape you, no word that would bring the blush of shame 
to your cheek would be uttered. And yet, in the presence 
of these heavenly ambassadors, these Angels of God, what 
is your language and what are your actions ? How often 
does the oath pass your lips in the day or in the hour, 
an insult hurled at their King in heaven. How often 
do you utter words that on reflection make you hang your 
head in shame ; how often do you do actions that you 
would not perform before the lowest in the land ; how 7 
often do you enter places that you would not want your 
friends to see you enter for the world ? How often are 
you in company that you would be ashamed of ? All the 
w r hile this pure spirit basking in the sunshine of God's 
presence is with you, and you do not give it a thought ! 

Well now, the month of the angels, October, is about to 
dawn upon us. Let me ask you to think of them fre- 
quently, thank them for what they are doing for you, 
pray to them to guide you safely and to conduct you to 
heaven. Pray to your guardian angel in the morning 
when you arise, in the evening when you retire, and 
when you are tired and troubled from temptations. 
Above all things ask that Holy Angel to pardon your past 
forgetfulness. For years perhaps you have not thought 
of it; say: a O good Angel ever present with me, you 

* 142 



FEAST OF THE HOLY ANGELS. 

who hear my every word and who see my every action, T 
honor, praise and bless your presence. I thank you for 
the innumerable blessings you have rendered me in the 
past, pardon me for my forgetfulness and ingratitude, and 
I promise to be more faithful and more devoted to you 
in the future. I look to you to be my guide through life ; 
and I hope that when death has closed my eyes on this 
world I may behold you pointing out to me the heavenly 
Jerusalem, and hear your voice crying to heaven that 
another soul is saved, that another servant is entering 
into the joy of his Lord." 



143 



XIV. SERMON. 
PENTECOST. 



John xiv. 23-31. 



Today, we are celebrating one of the greatest festivals 
of the Christian year. Christmas comes to us bringing 
with it the remembrance of the Gloria chanted by heavenly 
voices over the lowly stable of Bethlehem, comes to us 
with the promise of peace upon earth to men of good will ; 
for the long promised Saviour, the long promised Messiah 
and teacher of the world is born. Pentecost Sunday, the 
Sunday which we are now celebrating, comes to us like- 
wise as a day of gladness, comes to us with the remem- 
brance of those tongues of fire which appeared upon the 
heads of the Apostles; comes to us with the promise that 
the spirit of God is ever to remain upon mankind, to be 
poured out upon all flesh ; comes to us as a day of joy, 
for then was born into this world, not the physical body 
of Jesus Christ, but His mystical body, the Church. And 
this mystical body of Jesus Christ was born into this 
world even as He Himself was ; it was a birth that men 
knew but little of, it was hidden from the eyes of the 
great world at large. A few men gathered together in an 
upper chamber, men who had heard their Master telling 
but a short time before that He was about to disappear 
from their sight, but that He would not leave them or- 
phans; that He would send to them the Paraclete, the 

144 



PENTECOST. 

spirit of truth, who would abide with them forever. And 
suddenly while these men were engaged in prayer they 
heard as it were the rushing of a mighty wind coming 
from heaven, and instantly upon their heads appeared 
tongues of fire, and w r e read that they were filled with 
the fullness of the Holy Spirit. 

Previous to the advent of the Holy Ghost, these men 
were divided in opinion, they were slow to believe and 
very slow to act upon the truths that our Blessed Lord 
had imparted to them; nay, they even had their periods 
of doubt and misunderstanding, even after they had looked 
upon His miracles ; so much so, that they were rebuked for 
their incredulity by their Divine Master. But no sooner 
had they received the spirit of God than they became even 
as the spirit which moved them, their understanding was 
illuminated, and they saw the truths of the supernatural 
order in a new light; their wills were strengthened, no 
longer vacillating, they were confirmed in their attach- 
ments to the truths they had received and which were 
brought back to their minds by the coming of this spirit 
of truth. They w 7 ere knit together, those few men in 
that upper chamber ; knit together with the one mind and 
one heart of that Spirit which was sent them from on 
high, and there was cradled the Infant Church, which 
was to grow and increase till it would fill the entire world. 
We may well inquire into the wonder and surprise of 
those men who stood about and heard the preaching of 
the Apostles after they had been filled with the Holy 
Ghost. They came out from that upper room and began to 
preach Christ crucified, the Messiah ; and as they preached 
those who stood by, no matter from what part of the world 
they came, understood these poor ignorant fishermen 
as though they spoke in their native tongues. It is 
no wonder that they should stand amazed and ask one 
another : " How is it that we understand these men, are 
they not all Galileans, and yet they speak knowing every 
tongue." It was the Holy Ghost that was preaching 
10 145 



XIV. SERMON. 

through the Apostles in every tongue, thus teaching and 
showing them that the truths of Christianity were not 
to be confined to any particular place, but were destined 
for all men as all men were called to salvation. 

It was the Holy Spirit making known His mission to 
the world, namely, that He was to be the teacher of man- 
kind, that He was to bring to their minds truths that 
they were to receive and act upon, thus sanctifying their 
souls and gaining the inheritance of happiness in the next 
world. Our Blessed Lord had promised His Apostles that 
the Father would send the Paraclete in His name but for 
what purpose ? To teach them all truth, to bring back to 
their minds all things whatsoever He had commanded 
them, and as He promised, so was that promise fulfilled 
upon the Day of Pentecost. The Holy Ghost is then the 
teacher of the world, and He teaches through those to 
w 7 hom Christ said : " Go you into the world and teach 
all nations." Well indeed might He have said : " My 
peace I give you, My peace I leave unto you; " for from 
thenceforth men if they wished might know the truth that 
God had revealed, and that truth would make them free. 
To-day men boast of their freedom of thought and free- 
dom of speech in matters of religion, they glory in the 
freedom of their writings, and they call themselves free 
and independent thinkers. Our literature is filled with 
infidelity and the minds of men are being gradually in- 
fected. Thus it is that to-day we meet so many liberal 
minded men, as they are called, so many with little or no 
religion. They are enjoying the liberty which they boast 
of, they are not calling things by their proper names. 
They are confounding liberty Avith license. Carry out 
the principle which they make use of in religious matters, 
which is: that a man is free to take up the Scripture and 
judge for himself and say what he is to believe and what 
he is not to believe. Take this principle into the social 
order and say that a man is free to do what he pleases, 
that he himself shall be the judge of his own actions. 

146' 



PENTECOST. 

The moment you carry out the proposition that men are 
allowed to act without restraint, act independently of 
all law, that moment you destroy all society and man is 
thrown back into a state worse than barbarism. The most 
ignorant of men can understand this truth ; that freedom 
cannot exist without law and that once you take away 
law, a state of anarchy is introduced into the world. 

As in the social, so also in the religious order; the be- 
lief of men is to be regulated by some authority, and if 
we have not that authority, we must be prepared to see 
contradictory creeds, and also professions of belief start- 
ing up on all sides of us, nay, we must go farther and 
say that a human authority w T ill not suffice, the authority 
in the religious order must be divine; for the simple 
reason that there are truths proposed for our belief which 
the mind cannot understand nor comprehend; they are 
mysteries of another and a higher world above us and be- 
yond us, which we cannot grasp with our finite minds. 
If then this revelation of God's truth and of that higher 
world is to be subjected to the consideration of our finite 
minds alone, it is easy to see that we must end in infi- 
delity, discarding all knowledge of a world higher than 
our own. Full well did our Blessed Lord provide for 
this ; He foresaw the tendency of man to question, to in- 
vestigate and to doubt, if he could not understand ; there- 
fore, He promised and did send into this world that 
divine authority, the Holy Spirit, which was to remain 
forever with the Apostles and their successors, teaching 
and illuminating the world through them. 

Hence it is that the Supreme Pontiffs of the Church 
have the right to convene in Council to-day, even as they 
did in the time of the Pope St. Peter, and define for men 
what truths they are obliged to believe under pain of be- 
ing separated from the mystical body of Christ. Hence 
it is that they have the right to convene and say, even as 
the Apostles did in their first council of Jerusalem : u It 
Jiath ^seem ed good to us/' but notjto_us alone ;_" it hath 

147 



XIV. SERMON. 

seemed good to us and the Holy Ghost to decree that you 
shall receive this or that truth and to reject this or that 
heresy/ 7 Therefore it was that the world followed the 
faith taught by the successors of the Apostles for centu- 
ries, never questioning and never doubting, knowing full 
well that the spirit of truth promised by Jesus Christ 
had been poured out upon them. Therefore it is that 
even to-day men receive these same truths as coming 
from God Himself, and are as certain of them as though 
they heard the voice of God Himself speaking to them. 
What a beautiful picture does this presence of the Holy 
Ghost in the Church give of our religion"? It shows us 
men differing in opinion, differing in nationality, divided 
on political questions, warring with each other for the 
possession of states or countries ; it shows us men in har- 
mony and in peace, without division and without differ- 
ence in their religious belief. It shows us the learned and 
the rich in knowledge, the wealthy and the possessor of 
this world's goods, men rich in worldly science and poor 
in fortune, all knowing and all believing the same heaven- 
sent truth. Surely that mark of divinity which Christ 
claimed for Himself when the disciples of John came to 
Him asking Him if He was the Messiah ; may likewise be 
claimed by the Church. Go back and tell your Master 
that " the poor have the Gospel preached to them ; " Go 
back and tell your Master that the poor are as wealthy 
in their knowledge of the truths of heaven as the rich 
are. But, the Holy Ghost is not only the Teacher of the 
world, He is likewise the Sanctifier. He it is that sanc- 
tifies the Church, He sanctifies souls through the ministry 
of the Church's members. When your child is brought for 
baptism the minister of that Sacrament breathes upon it 
and says: " Exi ab eo, immunde spiritus." "Depart 
from this child, unclean spirit, and give place to the Holy 
Ghost, the Paraclete/' Again when presented for the sac- 
rament of Confirmation the Bishop prays : " Spiritus 
sanctus superveniat in Vos." May the Holy Spirit come 

143 



Pentecost. 

down upon you, and may He bestow on you his seven-fold 
gifts. So, too, in the sacrament of Holy Orders, when 
the young man presents himself for Ordination, he is des- 
tined to be an instrument of salvation to be made use of by 
the Holy Spirit for that purpose. He is cautioned by 
his Bishop even while he stands in the sanctuary a few 
moments before he approaches to receive the insignia of 
his office, cautioned to think over the responsibility that 
he is about to take upon himself; he is told that up to 
the present time he is free to depart, to go into the world, 
to take part in its cares if he so wish. And immediately 
there rises before the mind of that young man the heavy 
responsibility that he is about to assume. Children yet 
unborn will be presented to him for the baptism of the 
Holy Spirit. Persons that he had never met will kneel 
before him and ask him to pronounce over them the words 
of absolution from sin, and he knows that to perform and 
to administer these sacraments which are holy, his heart 
should always be free from sin ; for being an instrument 
chosen for the sanctification of others, he himself should 
be holy. He knows that " holy things should be handled 
in a holy manner/' he feels the weight of his mission. 
He hears the call of God, asking him to embrace that 
state of life, and enters it ; then the Bishop extending his 
hands over him prays that the Holy Ghost may descend 
upon him, and the clergy likewise impose their hands 
in imitation of the Apostles, thus invoking the presence 
of the Holy Spirit upon that young priest, that he may be 
an instrument and means of sanctification to others. And 
so we might go through all the sacraments and show the 
invocation of the sanctifier, show how the Holy Spirit is 
called upon in all the sacraments to sanctify us even as 
the Father created us, and the Son redeemed us. Again 
this Holy Spirit seeks to sanctify the world through His 
• teaching. We are told our duty in words that are simple 
and unmistakable, we are told our duty with regard to 
God and with regard to our neighbor, we have the com- 

149 



XIV. SERMON. 

mandments obliging us to perform certain actions and to 
avoid others ; we have teachers and instructors always call- 
ing upon us and always reminding us to do our duty ; we 
have all the means at our disposal for sanctifying and 
saving our souls, and if we be lost it is through our own 
fault and negligence. 

How strangely are some souls led captive and made 
partakers of the sanctity of the Holy Spirit. Thus, for 
instance we may take St. Augustine, a young man who 
when but twenty-eight years old, saw himself the master 
of all the sciences, but still his knowledge did not pre- 
serve him from vice. He had run the giddy round of 
pleasure, and his poor mother could but weep and pray 
for his conversion. One day hearing of the great austeri- 
ties and mortifications practised by the Anchorite, St. 
Anthony, St. Augustine said to his friend Alypius 
" What ! the ignorant take Heaven by violence, and we 
shameful wretches with all our miserable science rise not 
above flesh and blood. How long, Oh Lord, shall I say to- 
morrow — to-morrow, why not to-day ? why not at this very 
moment ? " As he uttered these words he heard an in- 
terior voice, the voice of the Holy Spirit saying to him; 
" Tolle, lege ; " take and read, and picking up a volume of 
St. Paul that lay at his feet he opened and read the pas- 
sage : " Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in riot- 
ing and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, 
not in contention, and envy, but put ye on the Lord 
Jesus Christ and make not provisions for the flesh in its 
concupiscence." His past life, its subserviency to his 
passions, immediately swept before him, in all its hide- 
ous deformity; his understanding was illuminated by the 
Holy Spirit, he saw the truth and into his heart flowed 
the charity of God. Augustine was converted; to-day 
he is known as a Doctor and Saint of God's Church. 

None save God alone can tell the wonders that were 
worked in souls during the last fourteen hundred years. 
Saint Mary of Egypt, after leading the life of a public 

150 



PENTECOST. 

sinner, steeped in vice of all kinds, is held back from en- 
tering a church on the Feast of the Exaltation of the 
Cross. She is told by a secret voice to go beyond the Jor- 
dan and do penance ; there in the desert she lived for forty- 
seven years, leading the life of a penitent and a saint. 
Again St. Margaret of Cortona was led back from her life 
of sin and shame by the sight of the putrified body of a 
man who had been her lover. She was so struck w T ith fear 
of the Divine judgment that she became in a moment a 
perfect penitent, and during the remaining tw T enty-three 
years of her life, her penance was so great that she merited 
a place in the calendar of the Saints. Wonderful in- 
deed are the workings and calls of the Holy Spirit in the 
souls of men ! To-day through the voice of some preacher, 
through the death of some friend, through the force of 
good example. To-morrow, through the reading of some 
pious book, the mere straying into a Church, coming upon 
a funeral and seeing the dead stretched out in the Church 
aisle. Through all these means are souls led to the knowl- 
edge of the truth and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. To- 
day it is like the history of that young organist who was 
called upon to play for his friend during singing of the 
Benediction Hymn. He sees the Blessed Sacrament ex- 
posed, the tones of the organ die out, a thousand worship- 
pers are bowing their heads in breathless silence; they 
are receiving the benediction of their Father who is in 
heaven. Immediately, the infidel organist is forced to his 
knees, rises a child of the Church soliciting the Baptism of 
water and the Holy Spirit, without which a man may not 
hope for salvation. Again like the young man, the bank- 
er's clerk, who strayed by mere accident one evening into 
a Catholic Church, the priest is kneeling in the sanctuary 
saying the Rosary for his people, the young man listens 
to the responses, marks the devotion of the people, goes 
out and confesses that never before in his life had he 
heard what might be called a prayer. The Holy Spirit 
had touched his heart, flooded his mind with light, he sees 

151 



XIV. SERMON. 

the error of his life, becomes a convert, and but a few 
years ago was seated upon one of the Archiepiscopal 
Chairs of our Country. Wonderful indeed are the works 
of the Holy Spirit in teaching and sanctifying men! 
Let us then, be ever obedient to the voice of the Church 
in her teachings, for she is the organ of the Spirit of 
truth, and if we do not hear her, neither do we hear Him. 
When therefore she raises her voice and tells us of danger, 
tells us of ways by which the enemy seeks to subvert our 
faith, tells us of an education that is dangerous to the 
faith of our children, tells of the life alliances that should 
not be entered into, tells us of societies that are inimical 
to the faith, let us like obedient children listen to her 
voice and subject our judgment to the judgment of the 
Spirit of God who guides her. Being our Mother she is 
solicitous for our salvation; this is her only mission 
upon this earth ; and if we wish to show ourselves true, 
obedient and loyal members of that society which is 
Christ's own mystical body, we shall always and ever 
respect her judgment. So too in the work of our sanc- 
tification we must make use of the means which Christ 
has died to obtain for us, which the Holy Spirit offers 
to us in the Church of Christ. Frequent the sacraments 
and be faithful in assisting at Mass, be present when you 
can at the public devotion in honor of Mary, or in honor 
of the Sacred Heart ; place no obstacle to the sanctifying 
power of the Holy Spirit, which is always working in 
this world. Be in earnest, realizing the truth that the 
night is coming when no man can work; that the night 
is coming which will veil your eyes in the sleep of death, 
the night which will usher us all into an everlasting future 
of misery or of happiness. 



152 



XV. SERMON. 
PASSION SUNDAY. 



Heb. ix. 11-15. 



Ox Passion Sunday, the subject that most naturally 
presents itself for our consideration is the Passion of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

It is a theme that is as ancient as Christianity itself, 
and men have spoken in glowing and burning words of 
those dreadful sufferings endured by the Lamb who had 
been appointed to be slain from the foundation of the 
world. It is a tragedy with which we are all familiar, 
and from our infancy we have heard the story of the 
Cross repeated by the Christian Preacher again and again. 
The orator, with all the graces of diction and in bursts 
of eloquence, has led us step by step, from the Garden of 
Olives to the hill of Calvary, and while we listened to 
his living words, we felt that he could give us but a faint 
idea of the bitterness of that long journey taken by our 
Blessed Lord. The painter, with all the magic of his art, 
in living colors, has set before us the picture of the God- 
man bathed in blood and bruised by the cruelties of his 
enemies. This scene has often passed before our gaze, 
and for the moment, while it passed, we felt a shudder, 
and as our consciences accused us of the bloody deed sor- 
row entered our hearts, and perhaps tears started from 
Our eyes, but, alas! The lesson was forgotten and ere 

153 



XV. SERMON. 

long that same conscience rose as an accuser, saying, you 
have again crucified your Saviour. And so the conclu- 
sion forces itself upon the mind, that the story of the Cross 
cannot be too often told. 

The only difficulty is how best to tell it, how best to 
represent it. The preacher knows full well that his words 
are but feeble; he knows full well the language, when it 
would voice the sentiments of the heart on such a lofty 
subject, is beggared and silenced ; hence he concludes that 
the most forcible and most touching sermon which could 
be preached upon the Passion of our Lord, would be to set 
before his people the Cross bearing the bruised form of 
his Saviour. The Cross alone, placed before our eyes, is 
the most eloquent of preachers; we look upon the dead 
cold face of Him who died for us, and our hearts grow 
warm with love; we see the prints of nails in His sacred 
hands, hands that have healed, and feet that have ever 
run after the sinner without tiring, and tears start from 
our eyes; we gaze upon the thorn-crowned head, the 
opened side; and our sorrow manifests itself in words as 
we protest that never again while we live will we be the 
cause of those bitter woes. Yes, we stand and hold 
aloft the figure of Christ upon the Cross holding it be- 
fore you without a word, the most eloquent discourse upon 
the passion and death of our Lord would be afforded you. 
But yet, you might not be satisfied ; for like the child 
that loves a kind Father you would wish to hear some one 
speak of His life of devotion, of His life of love ; and this 
is what we would endeavor to put before you. We would 
place before you deeds of love performed by the best of 
friends. We would place before you the sufferings of 
Jesus Christ ; that you may learn from them the heinous- 
ness of sins ; the great love of Jesus for us ; and that you 
may be so moved to contrition as to repent the past, re- 
solving that never again will you commit a single wilful 
mortal sin. 

It would be impossible to recount all the sorrows of 

154 



PASSION SUNDAY. 

Jesus Christ. We could not well relate in a few sentences 
all the circumstances of His Passion. We shall review 
with you its principal scenes, and we would ask you as 
we accompany our Lord in His sufferings, what place we 
hold in the motley throng around Him? Let us then 
join in the Supper scene where Christ, on the eve of His 
Passion, met His Apostles. All are assembled at table, 
their eyes fixed upon their Master, and they treasure up 
every word that falls from His sacred lips. He tells 
them what is to take place on the morrow, tells them that 
they will be scandalized in Him and fly from Him; tells 
them that one now in their midst is about to betray Him. 
Imagine the consternation of the Apostles at this startling 
revelation. One, in their midst, about to betray Him ! 
They were His favored children, they knew how much He 
had done for them, they understood how much He had 
promised to do for them, they walked with Him daily, con- 
versed with Him hourly; they saw the blind, the lame, 
the sick, all healed of their infirmities; they saw the 
grave give up the dead when called upon by Him; they 
had acknowledged Him in the sight of all these wonders 
as the Christ, as the Son of the living God, and hence 
it was, that when the revelation was made they were 
troubled and each one began to ask : " Is it I, O Lord ? " 
They separated for the night, Peter and James and John 
are asked to accompany our Blessed Lord; they go from 
that upper chamber in the evening ; the night is a pleasant 
one and they journey on together until they come to the 
garden of Olives. It was a well-known spot ; often before 
He had led His Disciples there to kneel and pray to His 
Heavenly Father. 

The other Disciples leaving the Cenaculum followed 
after their Master, but remained some distance from Him ; 
and then, with the three who had seen His glory, He en- 
ters the garden telling them that His soul is sorrowful 
even unto death; He asks them to stay and watch with 
Him. He walks a few steps further, enters a grotto and 

155 



XV. SERMON. 

there begins His bitter Agony. The first words that fall 
from His lips as He casts Himself upon His knees and 
face in the cave are : " Father, if it be possible, let this 
chalice pass from me." What! Is God Himself terri- 
fied ? Yes, He shudders and trembles, for the dead weight 
of sin is about to be placed upon His shoulders. Hitherto 
He has been the object of most tender love in the sight of 
His Heavenly Father; now, He is called upon to become 
an object of hatred, that the vials of God's wrath may be 
poured upon Him. In an instant He sees the sins, in- 
iquities and injustice of the world; the past comes up, and 
trooping with it come the sins of two thousand years, two 
thousand years of the world's unbelief and paganism ; two 
thousand years of the world's foul corruption and impur- 
ity pour in upon that pure soul. Then comes the perfidy 
of His chosen Apostles; one a traitor, another afraid to 
acknowledge Him ; the rest scattered and defamed through 
Him. He already hears the insults that are to be heaped 
upon Him, the scourging He is about to receive, the pierc- 
ing of the nails and spear, the insults which will be flung 
at Him on the Cross ; all these are present before His eyes. 
The future, too, starts up before Him, that long future, 
perhaps of another two thousand years ; another two thou- 
sand years of sin and shame, another two thousand years 
of forgetfulness of Him even while dwelling with us He 
sees the people in the midst of whom He had passed His 
life teaching and preaching; He sees them still blind to the 
light of faith ; He sees His Church, that Church which He 
came to establish upon this earth, persecuted and reviled ; 
not acknowledged by the world, dealt with as the world 
dealt with Him; He looks within that Church, within 
which those rich treasures of grace were placed, and terri- 
ble to witness, even these, the sacred ornaments of the tem- 
ple are abused. They were to cost Him His life blood ; yet 
careless souls, instead of using them as a means of Salva- 
tion, for which they were given, would so abuse them as 
to bring about their condemnation and ruin; His suffer- 

156 



PASSION SUNDAY. 

ings, offered to His Heavenly Father as an atonement for 
the sins of the world, were to become the occasion of dam- 
nation to others, and the words of Simeon sounded in His 
ears : " Behold this child is set for the ruin and resurrec- 
tion of many and for a sign which shall be contradicted." 
Xo sin escapes Him, every man born into the world 
stood there before Him as an accuser ; we stood there with 
oar terrible sins upon us, we stood there and shifted them 
upon that innocent victim, and then called upon His 
Heavenly Father to look down upon us. What then 
must have been His sorrows ? All those waves of sin 
flowing in upon Him ! We are unable to comprehend it ; 
for, to comprehend it we must understand fully on the 
one hand the divine perfections, and the sanctity of God 
Himself ; and on the other we know the enormity of mor- 
tal sin. So that now when we have seen the heavy sins 
of the world laid upon Him, we are forced to say that we 
cannot understand His sufferings. Neither do we fear to 
exaggerate them, nor are we at all surprised when we are 
told that a blinding sweat of blood issued from His pros- 
trate form, and that He cried out : " Father, if it be pos- 
sible, let this chalice pass from me.' 3 " Nevertheless not 
my will, but thine be done." 

But what of the Disciples during this dreadful sorrow 
which filled His breast ? Where are the faithful three 
whom He brought with Him that they might stand by 
Him in that bitter hour ? Where are Peter and John and 
James ? Unmindful of His request to watch and pray, 
they are sleeping. He comes to them, comes with garments 
stained with blood, faint, with livid lips and hair dishev- 
elled; comes with the sweat of blood bursting from every 
pore ; comes and asks the question : " Peter, are you sleep- 
ing ? What ! could you not watch one hour with me ? " 
They awake, start to their feet terrified, they see their 
Master fainting with weakness, they see Him pale and 
trembling; they hear His changed and scarcely audible 
voice and they ask of Him : " Master what has befallen 

157 



XV. SERMON. 

you ? " Again he repeats His injunction to them, tells 
them to watch and pray that they enter not into tempta- 
tion. Again, a second time He goes aside and prays : " O 
my Father if this chalice cannot pass away except I drink 
it, thy will be done." Then, before His vision passes the 
dreadful punishment which must be endured for sin ; a 
suffering of body and soul which should comprehend all 
the pain due to the concupiscence and sins of the whole 
human race from Adam to the consummation of Ages. A 
debt which should be paid by that humanity which alone 
is exempt from sin, that of the Son of God. The fright 
and sorrow which overwhelmed the soul of Jesus at the 
sight of this terrible expiation to come, no tongue could 
express, no mind conceive. Back again, staggering with 
weakness, He comes to His Disciples; and again this lov- 
ing Saviour finds them sleeping, for their eyes are heavy; 
He does not disturb them, leaves them resting; as a kind 
father who would not manifest to his children the sor- 
row that was breaking his heart. A third time He goes 
to the grotto and a third time He agonizes. Then He ex- 
periences that which every human soul must naturally ex- 
perience when about to sacrifice itself for another. It 
must naturally ask why it should sacrifice itself; what 
good will come of it ? This question with its answer must 
have occurred to Jesus, and immediately there swept be- 
fore his vision all the heartlessness of man. Far in the 
future He saw that same Sacrifice offered daily by thou- 
sands of his Priests; He saw the few worshippers who 
surrounded His altar, w r hilst the majority of men. stood 
aloof cold and indifferent to it. He saw the multitudes 
that would be baptized and cleansed from original sin by 
the efficacy of His blood, and He saw that blood w r asted, 
for they bore with them the Rite of Baptism only to taunt 
Him by their unbelief. He saw the multitudes upon 
whose souls that blood would fall in the Sacrament of 
Penance unworthily. He saw the multitudes who, Judas 
like, gathered about His table, fed upon His precious body 

158 



PASSION SUNDAY. 

and blood, while preparing to offer Him new insults. 
Above all things else He saw the profanation of His love 
as manifested in the adorable Sacrament of the Altar by 
the irreverence, the negligence, the contempt, the sacrilege 
of men. He saw those who should receive Him, take Him 
into their breasts, defiled with sin. The conflict was a 
fearful one, it was a conflict between the Mercy and the 
Justice of God. His mercy would save, His Justice would 
condemn. Once more from His sacred face rolled down 
huge drops of blood covering His garments; but He tri- 
umphing over the repugnance of His humanity, arose de- 
termined to pay the debt owed by the human race to of- 
fended majesty; determined to die in order that man 
might if he wished, win back through His sufferings the 
crown he had forfeited. A third time He comes, stagger- 
ing with weakness, to His disciples; trembling He ap- 
proaches them and tells them : " Sleep on now and take 
your rest ; behold the hour is at hand and the Son of Man 
shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Eise, let us 
go ; behold he is at hand who is about to betray me." 
They arose, and turning suddenly saw a body of soldiers 
approaching them. The Gospel tells us that a great mul- 
titude came out with swords and clubs, sent from the chief 
priests and ancients of the people. Imagine then that 
motley throng, carrying lanterns and bearing swords and 
clubs. What cries and yells must have disturbed the si- 
lence of the night, what oaths and imprecations, what foul 
language must have fallen upon the ear of Jesus. In 
solemn silence He awaits their coming in the midst of 
His Disciples. As they approach He notices their leader ; 
it is the man who but a few hours before had eaten at 
table with Him. It is Judas, whom He had just re- 
freshed with His Body and Blood. The Scripture tells 
us that when he ate, the " devil entered into him," and 
here now, like a man possessed, he stood before his Master 
ready to give Him over to His enemies. He had separ- 
ated from the other Disciples when they had left the Ce- 

159 



XV. SERMON. 

naculum, hurried off like a man under the power of the 
demon; hurried to conclude arrangements with the High 
Priests for apprehending Jesus. 

And now he comes at the head of the rabble to deliver 
the Son of Man to sinners. He tells them to watch His 
movements ; the man whom he will kiss is the man ; " look 
to Him, hold Him fast " lest He escape you ; and then 
Jesus, calm and patient, who by a few words struck the 
soldiers to the earth, permits that traitor not only to ap- 
proach Him, but to give Him the kiss of treason. He 
offers no rebuke, passes no censure on his action, but turns 
to the multitude and says : " You are come out as against 
a robber, with swords and clubs to apprehend me. I sat 
daily w T ith you teaching in the temple, and you laid not 
hands on me." His voice is drowned by the cries of 
the rabble, they gather around, bind Him with cords, and 
hurry Him off in their midst to the city. Night becomes 
hideous with their yells, and their infuriated faces, lit up 
by the red glare of the torches they carried, look like the 
countenances of demons. Forth from the houses which 
they passed stream the people, wishing to know the cause 
of the disturbance. They are told that Jesus is being led 
to death. Some fall in with the crowd, jeer and jest 
about the mock King, while others, faithful souls who 
had seen His cures and witnessed His miracles, compas- 
sionate Him in His sufferings and remonstrate with the 
brutal soldiers. But the Disciples, what of them ? Scat- 
tered and dismembered, as our Lord had predicted; one 
alone follows that train, Peter. He alone is there; there 
in the distance, not daring to venture too closely; now 
catching a glimpse of the pale, haggard, worn face of his 
Master ; there listening to the cries of the maddened mob, 
not able to speak a kind word to his Saviour. 

Here, we will interrupt the history of the Passion. The 
Agony in the garden is now over, and we will ask our- 
selves where are we to be found ? Are we with the Dis- 
ciples in the garden, who were asked to watch and to pray ? 

160 



PASSION SUNDAY. 

Are we with that mob which will not acknowledge the 
Son of God, although He is with us, which heaps indig- 
nities and outrages upon Him, or are we with the traitor 
Judas who sold his Master for the thirty pieces of silver ? 
In the first place, are we with the Disciples ? Has not 
our Blessed Lord told and forewarned us that while in 
the world we, too, should be tempted. There is no excep- 
tion to this law. Once born into the world we are sub- 
ject to the laws of humanity, and one of these is : that 
while we are made up of body and soul we will find with 
St. Paul that there is a law of the flesh and a law of the 
soul struggling one against the other; we will meet with 
temptation, and we are warned to watch and pray lest 
we fall. And yet, how few watch, how few avoid the 
occasion of sin ? How many of you, looking back upon 
your past lives this evening, can recall grievous falls from 
the very fact that you exposed yourselves to danger. You 
went with a certain companion, you went to a certain place 
of amusement, you read a certain book, knowing full well 
that the consequence would be sin. You did not watch, 
you did not carry out the command of the Lord to " cut 
off the arm and to pluck out the eye that would offend ; " 
to quit the dangerous friendship of those who would lead 
you to sin. Prayer became tiresome, became dull and 
heavy, you grew careless in the hour of temptation, and 
thus you fell. Thus it is that our Blessed Lord, bruised 
and mangled on account of your sin, can come before you 
and say : What ! could you not watch one hour with me ? 
What! could you not refrain from the commission of that 
sin which gave you but a moment's pleasure, could you 
not have refrained and saved me from this bath of blood 
into which I am plunged ? Perhaps you are not with 
the Disciples. May you not be with the mob, may you 
not be with the number who have forgotten Christ; who 
act as though you had not Christ in your midst. 

Endeavor to realize this truth ; that there is a large 
mob in this world, a large mob in the Church, who are 
11 161 



XV. SERMON. 

unmindful of Christ's presence in our midst. Ask any 
Catholic of our city, ask any Catholic throughout the 
cities of the world: Do you believe that there is a Sac- 
rament in your Church which as your Catechism expresses 
it, really and truly contains the Body and Blood of 
Christ ? Do you really believe that Christ is present in 
your Churches and in your Tabernacles; that Catholic 
will answer you with a straightforward Yes ! I believe 
that truth, for Christ Himself has told me that it is His 
Body and His Blood and I cannot doubt His word. 

Then we say that you should blush if such is your be- 
lief, since your practice runs counter to it. If you be- 
lieve this how often do you visit Him; how often do you 
receive Him ? How many years have passed since you 
were on terms of friendship w T ith Him ? You may say 
that you visit the church weekly, that you hear Mass 
every Sunday of your lives. What is the state of your 
soul ? Do you not kneel and sit here in His presence 
in a state of sin, and worse than all in a state of habit- 
ual sin : sins of the worst and of the darkest nature, sins 
which call upon Him to avenge Himself upon you for 
your transgressions. Are you one of that mob which is 
worse than the rabble into whose hands you have seen 
Him delivered ? Worse, for they did not know the man, 
whereas you know Him and know of His presence among 
you. Take heed lest you be of that number, for it is a large 
mob even in the Church. And if you would estimate the 
number of those who seem to be unmindful of Christ's 
presence with us, you have but to watch the Altar rail in 
any of our churches of a Sunday, month in and month 
out, and see the same pious souls kneeling there to com- 
municate with their God. The great multitude, the ma- 
jority we would say, do not present themselves as often 
as they ought, nay even when the Church commands them 
they do not hear her voice; not even at Easter. Where 
are the men who profess themselves Catholics ? Sunday 
after Sunday they show as but a mere handful out of the 

162 



PASSION SUNDAY. 

hundreds that we know belong to us. And these men pro- 
fess that Christ is corporally in our churches, that He 
is in the most Holy Sacrament. Is not this coldness, this 
indifference, worse than the pitiless fury manifested by 
the mob that persecuted Jesus Christ on His way to 
Calvary ? 

Again, there may be some among us who are with 
Judas, traitors to God and to themselves. Some who are 
selling their souls for the thirty pieces of silver, some who 
spend all their time and all their energy in amassing 
wealth, caring little for the Salvation of their souls. 
Visit any of our large cities, pass through the busy thor- 
oughfares, scan the multitude as it passes by, all are there ; 
the young in life, the aged, bowed down with years ; ma- 
trons and maids all pass by hurriedly. Some go by wear- 
ing a look of anxious expectation, some lost in thought, 
some sad and melancholy, others with the dark foreboding 
of some great failure. Ask yourselves, why this noise, 
why this hurry, why this bustle ? and the answer will 
come to you that they are all delving for money and the 
world's riches, they are all earnestness ; heart and soul, 
hand and mind in the work. True, there are good souls. 
The Saint passes by with the Sinner, but how many of 
them, like Judas selling their souls, giving Heaven in ex- 
change for the dollar! How many are there who think 
of our Blessed Lord, how many who resort in spirit to 
the presence of Christ in the churches. We should learn 
a lesson from these, we should be in earnest about our 
salvation; that is our business, our time, our energy, our 
money, all that we have, should be so used as to bring us to 
Heaven. If we are lost it is not Christ's fault, His love 
led Him to die for us, His love has made Salvation easy 
for us. We have but to be industrious, we have but to be 
in earnest, to throw ourselves into the work heart and 
soul ;' and with the determination that we are going to so 
live that we may be saved. Christ will help us, sin will 
have no longer a charm for us, and Heaven will be our 
reward exceeding great. 

163 



XVI. SERMON. 
QUADRAGESIMA. 



Do penance ; for the kingdom of God is at hand." 

Math. in. 1. 



Strangers entering any of onr churches during the 
solemn weeks of Lent would be struck with what, to them, 
would be a novelty in devotion. On the first day, Ash 
Wednesday, they would have noticed hundreds coming to 
kneel at this Altar to receive upon their foreheads a sprink- 
ling of ashes, while the Priest uttered a few words which 
to them would be devoid of meaning ; they would then see 
those same people passing out into the streets bearing that 
cross of ashes on their brow as though it marked them out 
for the day as Catholics. Our good friends might even 
be tempted to smile at what seemed to them a ridiculous 
and meaningless ceremony ; strange to say, there are some 
in our midst who style themselves Catholics, who would 
not hesitate to do the same thing; who, though not con- 
demning this custom of the Church, still, on account of 
human pride, or of the world's smile, would not have the 
courage to bend the knee and carry away with them that 
sign of their mortality. On Wednesday evenings they 
would hear some preacher proclaiming a conflict, telling 
them that they were engaged in battle with invisible ene- 

164 



QUADRAGESIMA. 

mies, telling them that though they lived in the world 
they were not of it, that though they shared in many of 
its interests, enjoyed many of its pleasures, all things 
should be made and must become subservient to one end: 
the salvation of their souls. If this were lost sight of, 
if this were not before them in their daily, nay hourly 
actions, they were but losing their time, and fast hurry- 
ing on the broad way which leads to destruction. 

On Fridays they would find our devotions assuming 
a new form, they would hear our choirs attuning their 
voices to a plaintive harmony, and would behold a Priest 
passing from one picture to another which hang suspended 
from the walls and they would hear him reading some 
mystery from the Passion of our Blessed Lord; but they 
would fail to understand that we were passing in spirit 
over the rugged way that led to Calvary; that we were 
standing before Pilate and asking ourselves why is it that 
this innocent man is condemned to die, why is it that He 
is crowned with thorns, that a heavy cross is placed upon 
His shoulders, why do the people run after Him hooting 
and jeering, why does He fall a first, a second and a third 
time to the earth, why is it that He who has proved Him- 
self the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, 
hangs bleeding upon that infamous gibbet ? But to him 
who should gaze upon these scenes with the eye of faith, 
how different, how full of meaning would be these devo- 
tions ! To him all these things would bring to mind the 
lesson inculcated by our Blessed Lord in to-day's Gospel, 
namely: the necessity of doing Penance for our sins. A 
necessity, for Christ Himself has said : " Unless you do 
Penance you shall all likewise perish. " Penance is a 
word that sounds strangely to the ears of the worldly 
nowadays ; it is a word which we recognize as having been 
once in use, but now, so far as practising the deeds which 
it would imply, almost obsolete. And why ? Are we not 
children of Adam, have we not the same reason for prac- 
tising penitential austerities which our fathers had ? Let 

165 



XVI. SERMON. 

us confine ourselves to this question for a few mo- 
ments. 

Is such a thing as Penance necessary for our salvation ? 
You will remember the state in which man was first 
created; in every way a perfect being, endowed with 
reason which governed all his passions, he might have 
remained faithful to his God and been gifted with im- 
mortality, he might have never known death ; but in an 
unfortunate hour the tempter came, wily and cunning, 
man became a slave to Satan and thus we all passed under 
the slavery of sin. We are sold, as St. Paul says, under 
sin. True, our God was merciful, and we found a Saviour 
in the person of Plis Son ; we found One who was able to 
redeem us from that miserable bondage, and who would 
again furnish us with means whereby we might arrive 
at the end for which we were destined from the beginning. 
For this did He die that cruel death, for this did He in- 
stitute His Church, for this did He leave us those fountains 
of grace, the Seven Sacraments. But though His blood 
was shed for all, still all will not be saved ; though His 
Church was instituted for all, all will not enter ; the Sac- 
raments were meant for the use of all, still all will not 
experience their efficacy. The redemption is a plentiful 
one, one sufficient to save the entire world, but it must be 
made use of; it must be applied to our souls, and we our- 
selves must apply its merits. Herein we first discover 
the necessity of Penance; to enjoy the fruits of that Di- 
vine Redemption, we must be continually performing acts 
of Penance and of mortification. To enjoy those fruits 
must we not take Christ as our leader, and as our leader, 
must He not likewise be our model % Consider then that 
divine character, and you will find in it a trait which you 
must imitate if you would be a true follower; to imitate 
it will be to live a continued life of Penance. Now one 
characteristic feature in the life of Christ was His state 
of incessant enmity against the sins of the world; this 
was the feature which separated Him from all the teachers 

166 



QUADRAGESIMA, . 

that had gone before Him, and made Him distinctively 
the Christ; He taught men what they really were; He 
taught them the worth of worldly riches, the value of the 
world's honors, and finally he convinced the self-styled 
virtuous, those who made a show of their good deeds and 
good intents, as for instance the proud Pharisee, convinced 
them of their state of sin and dared to tell them that they 
were whitened sepulchres. Thus He spoke to them, and 
for this reason they hated Him. Not that they hated 
Him for condemning their passions, but because He dared 
to throw their very goodness in their faces, and convict 
them of blindness to the very things wherein they thought 
their vision so clear. They hated Him, and if there be 
one truth in the whole Bible which stands out more plainly 
than another, it is that for the very self same reason for 
which these men hated Christ, their fathers had hated 
Christ ever since His prophets first revealed Him, and 
their sons would go on hating Him to the end of time; 
would hate Him as they hate Him even now, because He 
interfered, not with the passions which they knew to be 
bad and evil, but with the standard it had pleased them 
to set up of the lawful and the good. 

This was His peculiar trait ; enmity toward the worldly, 
enmity toward the world's greatness, enmity toward the 
world's weak good-natured souls; enmity because they 
were becoming more conformable to the world than to the 
maxims He inculcated. To be hated and to be persecuted 
seems to have been His special mission. And as He was 
hated and persecuted, so also did He predict that His 
followers should likewise be hated and persecuted. 

Here then is your Master, your leader, your model, 
Christ ; a despised man, a persecuted man ; in continual 
strife with the world. Is it not difficult to follow Him, 
to make war as He did upon the world, upon ourselves, 
upon the passions and inclinations of our corrupt nature, 
to run counter to the common practical life of the world ? 
To follow Him means to be pointed out, as St. Paul has 

167 



xvi. sermon. 

it, "as a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men." To 
follow Him we must, as the same great Apostle says, 
" become fools for His sake." In a word, if we would be 
His true Disciples, we must take up our cross and fol- 
low Him, and to follow after Him is to lead a peniten- 
tial life. 

Again we might prove the necessity for penance by 
the fact that Christ in dying for us did not wish to save 
us without our co-operation ; we were created without any 
help of ours, but we shall not be saved unless we corre- 
spond to the graces which God has given us. True, we 
are tempted, and grievously; true, there are many obsta- 
cles in the way of our salvation, but we must remember 
what the Apostle Paul tells us : " God is faithful, One 
who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which 
you are able; but will make also issue with temptation 
that you may be able to bear it." He tells us that though 
we be tempted, though there be times in our lives when 
it seems that we can no longer withstand the suggestions of 
the evil one, still God is faithful ; He beholds the unequal 
conflict between ourselves and the invisible powers that 
surround us, and He runs to our assistance with His di- 
vine grace; we on our part being free agents need but 
to correspond and the victory is ours. Nor should it be 
otherwise; for as man turned away from God by a free 
act of his will, so also should he turn to God by a free act 
of that same faculty; sufficient opportunities are offered 
us, it remains with us to say whether or no we shall em- 
brace them. He will not force us, for He would have us 
all confess with St. Paul: " I have fought the good fight, 
I have finished my course, I have kept the faith ; for the 
rest there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the 
Lord the Just Judge shall render to me on the last day, 
and not only to me, but to them also who love His com- 
ing." Now Christ saved us and purchased for us the 
means of salvation only by a life of Penance; by a life 
of suffering we, too, co-operate in that workj to be mem* 

168 



QUADRAGESIMA. 

bers of His Church we must also suffer with Him and 
crucify ourselves. 

To go farther, we may not only assert the reasonable- 
ness of doing Penance, but we may also say that out of 
charity to ourselves we are obliged to practise it. You 
remember the fall of our first parents; the guilt of their 
sin of disobedience was forgiven by God, but still, did 
He not tell them they must do Penance ? To the woman 
He said : " I will multiply thy sorrows ; in sorrow shalt 
thou bring forth children, and thou shalt be under thy 
husband, and he shall have dominion over thee." And 
to Adam He said : " Because thou hast hearkened to the 
voice of the wife, and hast eaten of the tree whereof I 
commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the 
earth in thy work; with labor and toil shalt thou eat 
thereof all the clays of thy life; thorns and thistles shall 
it bring forth to thee ; in the sweat of thy brow shalt thou 
eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou 
has come; for dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt 
return." Again, we have heard of King David's crime 
of murder and of adultery, and we hear the prophet Na- 
than telling him of the punishment which God had de- 
creed against him ; but David confessed his sins to the 
prophet and said, with contrition in his heart : " I have 
sinned against the Lord." Nathan answered and said to 
him : " The Lord hath taken away thy sin, thou shalt not 
die. Nevertheless, because thou hast given occasion to 
the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, for this thing, the 
child that is born to thee shall surely die." 

Now what do we learn from these examples ? What 
lessons are we to derive from them ? They tell us of a 
Penance we must perform if we have any regard for our 
well being, if we have any charity for ourselves. We see 
sin committed in these two examples, and we see that 
though it was forgiven, punishment had to be undergone 
for it. And is this not our belief? Do we not believe 
that there is a temporal punishment due to our many sins ? 

169 



XVI. SERMON. 

True, we may have made our confession, as did David, 
and we may have heard the consoling words that our sins 
were forgiven as David's were, that we would not there- 
fore be condemned to die, condemned to eternal punish- 
ment; but, like David, there is a temporal punishment 
due for our sins which we must suffer. We know more- 
over that punishment in the next world is something to 
be feared, so terrible is it that it cannot be imagined ; more 
intense than any suffering we could conceive of or which 
could be undergone in this life. If then we can avoid 
this terrible torture and do not, would we not be lacking 
in charity to ourselves ? We can now forestall these pun- 
ishments by voluntary mortifications, by voluntary acts 
of sacrifice; and surely the angels must look down with 
delight, God must look down with mercy and visit with 
a reward exceeding great the poor sinner whom He sees 
trying to atone by acts of Penance, by acts of self-denial 
and of self-annihilation, for the many sins and trans- 
gressions he may be guilty of. 

Another proof of the necessity of this virtue may be 
deduced from the fact that throughout Holy Scripture 
it is laid down as a condition for obtaining the forgive- 
ness of sin; likewise in the many examples of forgiveness 
in Holy Writ, such forgiveness was obtained only by 
means of the Penance performed. Xinevah was a proud 
and mighty city, to that city with its king and one hun- 
dred and twenty thousand inhabitants the Prophet Jonas 
was sent to forewarn it of the divine vengeance, which 
was soon to fall upon it on account of its many sins and 
iniquities. " Go," said the voice of God to Jonas, " go 
to Ninevah, that proud capital, that great city and preach 
in it, for the wickedness thereof is come up before me ; " 
but Jonas, aware of the mercy of God was loath to go ; for 
he knew that if they did Penance they would # be par- 
doned. He therefore fled, for as he said to himself : " If 
I go there and preach, Thou, who art so merciful to sin- 
ners, will spare them; their city will not be destroyed, 

170 



QUADRAGESIMA. 

and I shall be taken and put to death as a false prophet." 
He therefore would flee to Tarsis. But in vain did he 
seek distant lands, for are they not the possessions of the 
Lord; in vain did he take shipping on the sea, for is not 
the ocean His ? He embarked, a storm arose, the very 
waves conspired against his departure, and he made known 
to the seamen on board that he had fled away from the face 
of his Lord, and would not perform the command given 
him. The ship master and sailors came to him and asked 
him what they should do that the sea might be calmed. 
And he said to them : " Take me up and cast me into 
the sea, and the sea shall be calm to you, for I know that 
for my sake this great tempest is upon us." It was done, 
the sea grew calm, its waters closed over the body of 
Jonas and to all appearances he was lost. But not so; 
the designs of Providence were not to be frustrated by a 
single will, and three days afterwards Jonas was cast up 
alive upon the shore by a w T hale, when a second time the 
voice of the Lord came, saying : " Arise, go to Ninevah, 
the great city, and preach in it the preaching that I bid 
thee." And Jonas entered the city and began to preach: 
" Yet forty days and Ninevah shall be no more." His 
voice was listened to. Down from his throne came the 
haughty monarch of the Assyrians, cast off his royal robes, 
the insignia of his office, and clothed himself in sack cloth 
and sat in ashes; the example of the king was followed 
by the people, a fast was proclaimed and sack cloth gar- 
ments were worn by the greatest and the least. The Lord 
looked down and had compassion on them, and their sins 
were forgiven. Behold the forgiveness of sin, the effect 
of Penance! 

}Y* read in the third Book of Kings of a king, Achab, 
whose covetous eye had fallen upon the vineyard of Na- 
both, and who would purchase it if possible. But Naboth 
was unwilling to give or sell it to him; but the impious 
Jezebal, the wife of Achab, by her ingenuity devised a 
means of obtaining it. ISTaboth is accused of having blas- 

171 



XVI. SERMON. 

phemed God and the king; witnesses are summoned, Na- 
both, the proprietor of the vineyard is condemned to be 
stoned to death, and his blood to be licked up by the dogs. 
The sentence is carried out, Naboth dies innocently and 
Achab takes possession of his vineyard to enjoy it. But 
Eli as is told by the Lord to arise and go down to meet 
Achab, the King of Israel, and say to him : " Thus saith 
the Lord : ' Thou hast slain, moreover thou hast taken 
possession.' And after these words thou shalt add: c Thus 
saith the Lord : In this place wherein the dogs have licked 
the blood of Naboth, they shall lick thy blood also.' " The 
prophet went down and performed his commission, told 
the king in bold language of the fate that awaited him as 
a punishment decreed against him for his sin. Achab lis- 
tened, recognized the justice of the punishment, and with 
contrite heart resolved to do Penance for his crime. Forth 
before the gaze of his people comes that king, divested of 
his robes and wearing in their stead a hair cloth upon his 
flesh; feasting gave way to fasting, he lay down to rest 
only to find a new mortification of the flesh, for his bed 
was a bed of sack cloth. Again Divine Justice was ap- 
peased, the hand uplifted to strike stayed by the power 
of Penance. 

So, too, throughout the New Testament Ave shall find 
Penance sufficiently powerful to stay God's justice and 
obtain pardon. Thus it was with Peter, who had thrice 
denied his Master; thus it was with the thief upon the 
cross, thus it was with Mary Magdalen, who is now known 
as the penitent. They confessed their sins, they threw 
themselves at the feet of their Divine Master, acknowl- 
edged that they had committed sins and deserved punish- 
ment, promised to repent, to be more faithful in the fu- 
ture ; and thus it was that by their lives of Penance they 
merited to hear the consoling words : " Thy sins are for- 
given thee ; go now and sin no more." 

'Now, to bring this truth, the necessity of Penance, 
home to ourselves, is there one to-day in this community 

172 



QUADRAGESIMA. 

who has not at some time of his life been guilty of griev- 
ous mortal sin ? How have any of us, even the youngest 
of us, spent the few years we have been upon this earth ? 
Scarcely did we learn to know that there was a God when 
we trampled upon His commands. Yet to us has He not 
sent His prophets, have we not been told time and again 
of the punishment we may expect ? Yet still we live care- 
lessly, listening to that warning voice, but not at all dis- 
turbed by it; unlike the examples we have shown you in 
the Scripture, we will not confess ourselves sinners, we 
will not do Penance for our sins. How are we to ex- 
plain this ? There are those here now listening to every 
word we speak, admitting it all, admitting that they are 
sinners, admitting that they should do penance, aye, and 
perhaps now are half forming the resolution of doing 
better, of going to confession, of endeavoring to lead a 
more Catholic life for the future; and yet they will have 
scarcely left the church door when these words will be 
forgotten, when that voice of conscience which is now 
whispering to them to be sure not to let this Lent go by 
without making their peace with God, will be smothered 
and drowned by the louder voice of the world. How then 
are we to account for this ? Does it not arise from your 
careless way of living; does it not arise from that habit 
you have formed of putting off your confession from day 
to day, from week to week, and from month to month; 
so years go by and the longer you remain away the more 
difficult it is to find your way back. Ah ! we are told in 
the Epistle of to-day that now is the acceptable time, now 
during this season of Lent, as the Easter time draws nigh, 
who knows how many of us may be left to spend another 
Lent on earth, how many like you have met here last Lent 
and during the year have been called to render an account 
of their lives ; how many of us who are now present may 
be called out of this world before another Lent comes 
round ? One conclusion therefore, " this is the accept- 
able time/^and like consistent people approaching the 

173 



XVI. SERMON. 



sacraments, Easter morning will find us at peace with 
Almighty God — satisfied with ourselves, living with the 
hope and expectation of a glorious resurrection on the 
last day. 



174 



XVII. SERMON. 
THE HOLY NAME. 



11 All the nations thou hast made shall come and adore 
before Thee, Lord, and they shall glorify thy name" 

Ps. lxxxv. 9. 



So sung the Psalmist in a moment of inspiration when 
looking with prophetic eyes into the future. He beheld 
all the nations of the earth praising and glorifying the 
God-Man, Christ our Lord. To-day the Church witnesses 
the fulfillment of that prophesy, takes up the same strain, 
and in Her Office repeats and prophesies that the gen- 
erations yet to come will likewise unite and praise the 
name of the Lord. 

It is fitting that on this day, the Feast of the Holy 
Name, we should contemplate the character of Him who 
bore our sins. Not that we shall hear anything new of 
Him, not that we may expect to convince the unbeliever 
of His divinity; but that we may learn something of the 
greatness and the sanctity of His character, so that we 
may look up the more fully to Him as our model, our 
teacher, and therefore be led to love Him more dearly as 
our Redeemer and our God. An idea of the character of 
any one can be formed from considering his influence 
upon the time and society in which he lives. Thus, if 
to-day we wished to form an estimate of the men who 

175 



XVII. SERMON. 

surround us, we should ask in what manner they bene- 
fit their neighbors and society; so also in the past, if we 
would duly appreciate the character of great men we must 
inquire what effect their teaching, their manner of life, 
had upon society at large, and the more we find mankind 
benefited by such men the greater our respect, veneration 
and love for them; the greater and higher our opinion of 
them. Now in considering the character of our Blessed 
Lord we shall apply the same principles and first ask 
ourselves : What did the times call for ? How far had 
men advanced in religion and morality; what was then 
the great want of the people of the earth ? To estimate 
these we have but to glance at the condition of Imperial 
Home. Throughout her vast domain we find immorality 
prevailing, blasting Avith its breath and touch, all that was 
pure and virtuous; modesty which lends such a sweet 
charm to beauty and virtue had vanished. Man, the 
noblest work which had passed from the hand of God, 
knew neither his worth nor his destiny, and became a 
slave to every passion of his baser nature. It was a sad 
and sorrowful spectacle. Behold a vast empire display- 
ing all imaginable pomp, yet despising all morality; a 
people rich in mental culture, a people possessing Philoso- 
phers, Poets, Historians and Orators, who have known no 
equal, worshipping at the shrine of licentiousness. This 
was then the condition of civilized Rome. Those elements 
of society, the individual and the family, were not valued ; 
hence came the decline of the empire. Individual rights 
w r ere not defined, that of the family was not respected 
from the want of a knowledge which would lead to the 
proper appreciation of individual man. How then could 
they obtain this knowledge ? Were they without teachers ? 
Had not Greece heard the voice of her Plato, who was 
called the divine, and that of her Aristotle ? True, they 
were lights in those dark days, they understood many 
natural truths ; but when we hear them defend, nay, teach 
crime itself, then we see the imperfection of human knowl- 

176 



THE HOLY NAME. 

edge and are obliged to confess that human science alone 
could not preserve the society of those days from destruc- 
tion. But was their legislation, too, at fault ? Have we 
not heard of an Athens who had her wise Solon, and of 
a Sparta who had her Lycurgus ? True indeed there were 
many wise legislators, true indeed that even to this day 
the legislation of the Roman is considered a model; but 
what was its effect, what could be the effect of laws if 
moral principles were not fixed in the conscience, and if 
the manners of the people were opposed to law. Beside 
these, where was the legislator who had not been circum- 
scribed by place and time; the teacher who had not been 
confined to a country or a nation ; their teaching and their 
laws lacked the quality of universality, and in consequence 
could not reach the barbarism which prevailed through- 
out the world. The great wants to be supplied were then 
a knowledge of the truth of the relation of man to his 
Creator, a knowledge of law and order, and a healthy con- 
science among the people. Who could supply these wants, 
who could teach with an authority to claim and demand 
universal consent for his doctrine ? Who could legislate 
without force, and reign supreme in the conscience of the 
individual ? Who could endow society at large with a 
public and just conscience? Could Science, who con- 
fessed her inability; could Paganism, the prevailing re- 
ligion of the day ? Philosophy had exposed its weakness, 
and was insufficient. Where then could be found a power 
capable of supplying these needs of society? The power 
of earth confessed its weakness when its learning and its 
laws could not effect the result. Turn we then to seek a 
superhuman, a divine power; and there, standing as the 
central figure of the world's history, the embodiment of 
Christianity, an object of admiration for the believer and 
of hatred for the infidel, we discover One whose every 
word is sacred, whose every act became the theme of de- 
vout meditation ; whose teachings are reverently com- 
mented on, whose precepts are obeyed, and whose exam- 
12 177 



XVII. SERMON. 

pie is followed. Plim we recognize as the great Reformer 
of the world, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son 
of God. 

One day a crowd of men gathered about the halls of 
Pilate. One thought alone filled their minds, they were 
intent upon the destruction of some one; with wild cries 
they called out for the condemnation of Him who had 
dared to name Himself King of the Jews. Within the 
palace stood Pilate and a man known to the populace as 
Jesus, the son of a poor carpenter. He had been brought 
there for trial and Pilate asked Him : " Art thou the 
King of the Jews ? " The malefactor, as they styled 
Him, answered : " My kingdom is not of this world. If 
my kingdom were of this world my servants would cer- 
tainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews, 
but now my kingdom is not from hence." Pilate, there- 
fore, said to Him : " Art thou the King then ? " Jesus 
answered : " Thou sayest that I am a King. For this 
was I born and for this came I into the world, that I 
should give testimony to the truth." Voices clamored 
within the hall at this declaration, and the lashes of the 
brutal soldiery were heard falling upon His shoulders; 
they led Him forth before the mob with a crown upon 
His Head, but one of thorns ; with the royal purple about 
Him, but in mockery; and there Pilate proclaimed from 
his balcony: " Behold the man." Little did that Ro- 
man governor think that he was then giving to the gaze 
of that rabble a man who should in after years be held 
up to the admiration and adoration of the world ! Little 
did he think that in after years, the power which he then 
wielded would have crumbled away! Little did he think 
that the world would resound with the praises of the 
malefactor's Holy Name, and that the Christian Preacher 
would tell peoples and nations then unborn : " Behold the 
man." 

Behold Him who supplied the wants of society, behold 
Him, the Teacher, the Legislator of the world! How 

178 



THE HOLY NAME. 

then did He set about His work ? Study Him as a teacher 
and you will find Him uttering a doctrine until then not 
thought of, because divine; not only does He teach, but 
He likewise practices the lessons He would inculcate. The 
teachings of others had not been received by the world 
for the reason that they could not teach with authority. 
Reason pitted against reason had equal power, and was 
equally received by the people. Authority to teach was 
wanting; there could be no certainty of the doctrine 
taught. Now Christ came before the world, and claimed 
divinity of person, claimed that He came down from 
heaven, that He was sent into the world by His Father, 
and as He said to Pilate, in order that He might teach the 
truth. Thus, His Doctrine was of the highest possible 
authority; the authority of the God-head. But was that 
sufficient ? JSTo ! He had as yet but asserted that He was 
the Son of God and the world demanded proof ; proof was 
given in His miracles when He changed water into wine, 
bade the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, the blind to see, 
the dead to come forth from the bandages and linens in 
which they had been buried. Proof was offered when 
they saw Him dying for the truth He had preached ; when 
they saw the earth shaken at His crucifixion; when they 
saw Him rise from the dead, walk again in the midst of 
His Disciples, and finally ascend into heaven. His au- 
thority then was not only asserted, but confirmed, and the 
world was obliged to bow down and receive the teachings 
of its God. 

The time of His Mission has come, led by the spirit 
of God He enters the desert, and there buried in solitude 
far from the habitation of men, He fasts for forty days 
and forty nights, spending His time in preparation for 
the mission His Father had given Him. He comes out 
from the desert and no longer has a fixed habitation. He 
wanders, as did the prophets, from village to village 
and from town to town, preaching tidings of joy to the 
world ; of peace to men of good will. A prophet foresaw 

179 



XVII. SERMON. 

this hour of redemption and chanted this canticle: 
" Arise, be enlightened, Oh ! Jerusalem, for thy light 
is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. 
For behold darkness shall cover the earth, and a mist the 
people ; but the Lord shall arise upon thee and His glory 
shall be seen upon thee, and the Gentiles shall walk in 
thy light and kings in the brightness of thy rising." 

Good tidings ! good tidings ! Tell it to the individual ; 
let him arise with a consciousness of his dignity and of 
his destiny; let him be told that instead of living for his 
state, for his nation, or for his country, that he lives for 
God; that he lives for a place beyond the skies; that he 
is the object of God's love; that he is equal before God 
with the prince, though he be but a beggar. Good tidings ! 
good tidings ! Tell it to the millions toiling in slavery ; 
let them know that the time has come when their chains 
shall drop from their hands; let their necks be bent no 
more to the yoke of tyranny, and let them walk erect con- 
scious of their true dignity as men. Good tidings ! good 
tidings ! Tell it to the family ; let the poor sorrow-stricken 
wife hear that she is no longer the slave of her husband, 
the plaything of his fancy, that she is not to be separated 
from her children; that henceforth she is to be placed on 
the same footing with her husband ; that she is to be en- 
titled to respect; that she is to be the instructress of her 
children, and that the contract into which she has en- 
tered can be dissolved but by death. Good tidings ! good 
tidings ! Tell it to the world and let society rejoice, for 
into it in its dying hour is again breathed the breath of 
life; the individual is raised, the family secured against 
dismemberment, and the people are to live again saved and 
vivified by true ideas, sound morality and Divine Reli- 
gion. The Saviour preached these good tidings in the Syn- 
agogue and in the Temple, upon the mountain heights, 
on the shores of the lake, and in the deserts where crowds 
followed Him. Men were so charmed with His person 
and His doctrine that we hear them crying out after Him 

180 



THE HOLY NAME. 

in the streets to have pity on them. Zaccheus climbs into 
a tree to get but a glimpse of Him, and the Disciples, won 
by a word, throw aside their boats and fishing nets, and 
immediately follow after Him. Nay, more; even the 
multitude becomes so delighted with His presence and at 
His words, that they followed Him for three days and for- 
got their need of food, so that our Blessed Lord was ob- 
liged to perform a miracle in order that He might give 
them nourishment. 

His doctrine was well calculated to call forth such en- 
thusiasm ; it was expressed in a most simple language, a 
language which could not but impress the people. Con- 
sider the simplicity and sweetness of the parable of the 
prodigal son, the tenderness and goodness of that of the 
shepherd who leaves the ninety and nine sheep and goes 
in quest of the one lost; that of the banquet or nuptial 
feast, that beautiful figure of the Holy Sacrament of the 
Eucharist, of which all are invited to partake ; the poor, 
the unfortunate, the rich, and the happy of every age and 
of every place. What goodness, what sweetness, what a 
touch of simplicity, of affection, and tenderness ! The 
morality of His doctrine was none the less charming; He 
left no vice uncondemned, no virtue which was not pre- 
scribed ; until then men had believed that riches were the 
greatest blessing, but He on the contrary proclaimed: 
" Blessed are the poor in spirit." Until then it was 
deemed cowardly not to resent an injury; men lived but 
for honors and distinction, and those who gained them by 
their pride and ambition were looked upon as successful; 
but counter to this ran the saying of our Divine Master: 
" Learn of me that I am meek and humble of heart. If 
any one will be my Disciple let him deny himself, take 
up his cross and follow me." What greater purity of 
heart, and fraternal charity could be enjoined than that 
preached by Him on the Mount : " If thy right eye cause 
thee to offend, pluck it out and cast it from thee; and if 
thy right hand cause thee to offend, cut it off and cast it 

181 



XVII. SERMON. 

from thee ; for it is better for thee that one of thy mem- 
bers should perish than that thy whole body should go 
into hell." " Let your speech be yea, yea, no, no ; for 
whatever is more than this cometh from evil." " You 
have heard that it hath been said: Thou shalt love thy 
neighbor and hate thy enemy; but I say to you, love 
your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray 
for them that persecute and calumniate you. For if you 
love those that love you, what reward shall you have, 
for do not the publicans the same; and if you salute 
your brethren only, what do you more ? Do not also the 
heathens the same ? Be you therefore perfect as also your 
Heavenly Father is perfect." Were ever such maxims of 
morality uttered, did ever philosopher or sage speak such 
language ? 

But not only did Christ preach, He likewise practised 
the perfections He enjoined. His was a life of heroism, 
of purity, and of incomparable charity. Consider that 
divine picture in the light of the Gospel; what love for 
God, what zeal for His glory! Entire nights were spent 
in prayer, and He tells us Himself that His meat was to 
do the will of the Father who sent Him into this world. 
What humility He practised, what disinterestedness He 
manifested in His every action ; There was nothing of self 
in that sublime character ; all was for God and His glory. 
He is poor, and yet flies from the honors and riches of the 
world. The people would make Him their King, but He 
escapes from them and hides in the wilderness. They 
wished to receive Him with honors in Jerusalem ; but He 
flies from them and goes into the country. Think of His 
goodness and His gentleness towards the sinner and the 
unfortunate; what could be said of that? Admire His 
simplicity and love in the midst of little children : " Suf- 
fer them to come to me for of such is the kingdom of 
heaven." Behold His sorrow when Martha speaks to 
Him of the death of her brother; He goes to his tomb, 
calls him forth ; and gives him back to his loving sister, 

182 



THE HOLY NAME. 

Again, touched with compassion when he beheld the 
widow weeping for her son, He ordered the bier to be laid 
down, and then and there calls to life her only boy. In 
a word, it is impossible to describe His virtues, we can 
only use the simple though complete saying of the Gospel 
if we would describe His life : " He went about doing 
good." Well might He make the reply given to His ac- 
cusers in the gospel of St. John : " Which of you shall 
convince me of sin ? " 

And what may we expect of Him as a lawgiver. Law 
is a rule of conduct in accordance with the principles of 
right reason ; to be effectual it must have a sanction ; to be 
binding it must proceed from a power which has the right 
to command. None but God in His sovereignty, and 
those to whom He has delegated it possess that power. 
" All power is given to me in heaven and on earth," says 
our Blessed Lord ; hence, when He taught men their duties 
to God and to their neighbors, the world received the high- 
est legislation. To do this He had but to sum up the law 
and the prophets, and that He did when He said : " Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, with thy 
whole soul, and with thy whole strength, and thy neighbor 
as thyself." Men were/to live for God alone, for another 
world ; this was their first duty, and in this all were equal. 
Man was to love his neighbor, and in loving his neighbor 
he would respect his rights ; this was his second duty. Mu- 
tual respect for rights, and obedience to the call of duty 
was the whole tenor of the law. The marriage contract 
once entered into could no longer be broken by the whim of 
the husband. " What God hath joined together let no man 
put asunder." This was the sacramental seal which gave 
stability to the family, and society being made up of 
the family its influence was universally felt. Parents 
understood that they were to protect and provide for their 
children, while the children recognized on the other hand 
that they were bound to respect, love and obey their par- 
ents as those whom God had appointed to watch over them. 

183 



XVII. SERMON. 

Masters were to be kind to their servants, remembering 
that they, too, had a Master in heaven, while the servant 
was to be respectful and obedient. The relation of the 
citizen to civil authority was likewise determined, and 
obedience to the constituted authorities became a religious 
duty. In a word, the law of Christ being the law of God, 
became the law of conscience, and thus the third great 
want of society was supplied. The reign of conscience 
began. Truth had been born into the world, had mani- 
fested itself in the person of Christ, and dispelled the 
darkness of error. Ah ! should not our hearts expand 
with love on this day when we reflect upon the sublime 
character of Jesus. One man changes the entire world. 
Henceforth men will not date events from the beginning 
of the world, but will turn to the birth of that one Man. 
Even those who do not believe in His existence, who re- 
gard Him as a myth, who have tried to destroy Him, in 
spite of their hatred for that man, in spite of their incre- 
dulity will date births and deaths as so many years from 
the birth of Christ. 

And does not our admiration increase when we con- 
sider the difficulties He had to encounter? He taught 
but for three years, and that teaching was antagonistic to 
the teachings of the world ; adverse to the passions of men 
and opposed to their desires. His was a doctrine which 
demanded a life of self-denial, a life of mortification. 
And how did He propose to propagate that doctrine ? Did 
He solicit the favor of the mighty ones of earth, did He 
make use of force ? JsTo ; but one day walking on the sea- 
shore, and noticing a few fishermen mending their nets, 
He said to them: " Come, follow me." Next day, pass- 
ing through the market place, He saw another gathering 
taxes, and to him, too, He said: " Come, follow me." 
And so He went on until He had chosen twelve men, not 
well-known, or famous for their learning, but on the con- 
trary poor, hard-working, illiterate men ; to them He said, 
after spending three years with them: " All power is 

184 



THE HOLY NAME. 

given to me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore and 
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and lo, 
I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the 
world." Out into the world went these chosen Disciples; 
they had seen their Master put to death, but nothing 
daunted, they went out to preach what they had been 
told. They were sent as sheep in the midst of wolves. 
They were prepared for the scoffs and jeers of the world ; 
nay, more, they, too, like their Master, would die in de- 
fence of the doctrine they preached; and not only they, 
but their successors for centuries, until the world at large 
would take up their doctrine, until their precepts of 
equality and charity would have been received into every 
code. Had the world ever before acknowledged a single 
man as its conqueror, and this man, without arms, with- 
out earthly help, and wearing the appearance of the lowest 
among men, triumphed over the selfishness and wickedness 
of the entire world. 

In considering that figure we are forced to confess with 
the Apostle Peter the divinity of that man. One day 
Jesus came into the confines of Csesarea and asked His 
Disciples, saying : " Whom do men say that the Son of 
Man is ? " And they answered : " Some say that thou 
art John the Baptist, and others Elias, and others Jere- 
mias, or one of the Holy Prophets." He saith to them: 
" But whom do you say that I am ? " And Simon Peter 
answering, said — and we with him, after considering the 
sanctity of His doctrine and of His life, after considering 
the changes effected in the world by His teaching, after 
considering the greatness and the power of the man, we, 
too, must cry out with Peter : " Thou art Christ, the 
Son of the living God." 



185 



XVIII. SERMON. 
FEAST OF SAINT PETER AND SAINT PAUL. 



44 He that cometh to God must believe that 

He is, and is a rewarder of them that seek Him" 

Heb. xi. 6. 



We do not think it out of place to speak of one 
characteristic in the lives of these two men who were 
chosen by Christ to carry on the work which He had be- 
gun in this world. His work was the Sanctification, 
the Salvation of the human race through Faith, and this 
is the work which they entered upon in all earnestness. 
With heart and soul they preached, and never tired of 
preaching Jesus Christ crucified ; to the Jews a stum- 
bling block, and to the Gentiles foolishness. To do that, 
they necessarily had to be men of faith themselves, men 
of ardent and living faith. We propose to show you 
that these two Apostles were men of real sterling faith. It 
is good for us of to-day to recall the lives of such men ; for, 
if we look abroad over the world, one thing must astonish 
us. There are men, Catholic men, leading lives that 
tell of faith lost and destroyed, while the actions of 
others warn us that their faith is shaken and threatened 
with shipwreck. This growing coldness to faith, to 
practical living faith, escapes the observation of none; 
it is commented upon daily. Those who labor to bring 
about this subversion of faith cheer themselves and tell 
us that the world nowadays must see, feel, and hear 

186 



FEAST OF SAINT PETER AND SAINT PAUL. 

things for itself, or it will not believe; they tell us that 
this is a progressive age, far beyond the dark ages of 
Faith ; that it is an enlightened age, and men must com- 
prehend and fully understand that which they had 
hitherto taken for granted by faith; finally, and in a 
word, it is an age of knowledge and not one of belief. 
The minds of such men look upon the Ten Command- 
ments as a beautiful code of morality, one perhaps that 
could not be improved on; but that those laws are so 
binding upon our conscience as to entail upon the head 
of him who violates them, an everlasting punishment in 
the next world, seems to them hard, so hard that they do 
not wish to hear it or believe it. By their lack of faith 
they thus break down the divine sanction of the law, and 
render it nugatory; binding, only in as much as it is 
protected by society for a human purpose. To the 
minds of such men the Church is a beautiful institution, 
a magnificent organization; one that calls forth their 
wonder and their admiration as a piece of human polity ; 
an institution that in its day did great good, broke down 
the barriers that opposed the unification of society, and 
cemented individuals and families into one common 
social fabric. But to-day they regard that Church as 
out of place, as in its dotage; because it insists upon its 
place in the world as the representative of Jesus Christ. 
They regard it as a piece of machinery that worked well 
in its time, but which has now become heavy and cum- 
bersome; they insist that the world must rid itself of an 
institution which shackles the mind, keeps men from 
advancing in the march of modern evolution, and for- 
bids them from adopting the progressive ideas of the 
day. Because She opposes all this She is styled intoler- 
ant and superstitious, an effete thing of the past. And 
we must not deceive ourselves ; moving as we do in this 
atmosphere, breathing it in our daily life. Some of us 
are affected by the poison, injured in our faith. TVe 
appeal to the memory of the oldest among us to testify 

187 



Xvail. SERMON. 

to the living faith of their day. They could tell us of 
a Faith and a Love that bound them to their Priests and 
to their Religion such as does not exist among the youth 
of to-day; they could tell us of respectful and devout 
posture in the hours of prayer, the absence of which is 
very often evident among our young men; they could 
tell us of the two seasons of the year, Christmas and 
Easter, when the thought was not allowed to enter into 
their minds of absenting themselves from the Sacra- 
ments, no matter what their lives had been. True, these 
faults seem but ripples upon the surface, they are not 
straightforward denials of Faith; perhaps the men who 
are guilty of them would to-morrow die for their Re- 
ligion; but still their effect is bad, they tell us of an 
undercurrent which sways, of an undercurrent which 
may affect, perhaps destroy, the reality of Faith. Let 
us then to-day examine this question of Faith and its 
necessity. Take that of the two Apostles, Peter and 
Paul; review the obstacles they had to contend with, 
and finally examine our own, and see how we withstand 
the difficulties that are thrown in our way. In the first 
place, what is Faith ? Our Catechism tells us that it is 
a divine virtue by which we firmly believe all that God 
has taught ; in other words it is the assent of the intellect 
to all the truths that God has revealed to mankind. 
Whoever admits that Jesus Christ is God, admits the 
necessity of Faith; for we know that the world before 
the coming of Christ was to be saved only by belief in a 
Messiah, who was to come. After His coming all men 
who believe that Christ is God believe that their Salva- 
tion is through Faith in Him as Saviour. 

The first thing necessary for Salvation is Faith. St. 
Paul tells us : " Without Faith it is impossible to please 
God." Again writing to the Hebrews, he says : " For 
he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and is a 
rewarder of them that seek Him." Not only is the in- 
ternal assent of the mind necessary, but there are times 

188 



FEAST OF SAINT PETER AND SAINT PAUL. 

in life when we must profess our faith, for we read in 
the Gospel of St. Matthew : " Whosoever therefore shall 
confess me before men, I will also confess him before my 
Father, who is in heaven/' and in St. Luke we read: 
" For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my word, 
of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he shall 
come in His majesty and of His Father and His Holy 
Angels." Again St, Paul, in writing to the Romans, 
tells us : " For with the heart we believe unto justice, 
but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." 
Here let me not be misunderstood; that faith simply in 
the person of Jesus Christ is sufficient for salvation. 
No ! But a faith which implies a belief not only in His 
person, but a belief in His whole doctrine and an obedi- 
ence to His law, a faith which comprises each and every 
truth as soon as proposed; a faith living in the heart 
and manifesting itself in our lives. For we read 
Christ's own words in the Gospel of St. Matthew, where 
he says : " Not every one that saith to me 'Lord, Lord/ 
shall enter the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the 
will of my Father, who is in heaven, he shall enter into 
the kingdom of heaven." Not every one that professeth 
me to be the Christ and loveth me by name shall enter 
into the kingdom. He alone who doeth the will of my 
Father, he alone shall enter into that kingdom. 

Here then, we have an idea of what the Christian's 
faith must be. Faith is that fundamental virtue of the 
soul, infused into it by grace, by which it receives with- 
out doubt and without hesitation, unseen truths and 
mysteries wdiich have been revealed to us by God; by 
which it not only assents to them as true, but goes 
farther, and realizes them, regards them a present actual- 
ity, much in the same way as sight or touch makes evi- 
dent to us the reality of what we see or handle in the 
world around us. Hence it is defined by the Apostle 
as : " The substance of things hoped for, the evidence 
of things not seen." Its chief and essential property is, 

189 



XVIII. SERMON. 

that it accepts supernatural truths simply on the 
authority of God; truths which are obscure and 
incomprehensible, which do not carry with them to 
our reason their own infallibility; truths which to the 
Christian mind do not necessarily convey constructive 
evidence of their certainty, but rest on the authority of 
God, who is not deceived and cannot deceive His crea- 
tures. Thus it is that there is no degree of certainty in 
matters of Faith. All matters of Faith are equally cer- 
tain; we are as equally certain of the Trinity as of the 
existence of God. The Christian has but to ask him- 
self: Has this truth been revealed by God? Has God 
taught men this truth ? And, if the answer be that God 
has revealed that truth, that He has taught it to men, 
then, no matter what it may be, whether it be the Real 
Presence in the Eucharist, whether it be the forgiveness 
of sins in the tribunal of Penance, or the Infallibility 
of the Pope in matters of faith and morals, His will at 
once demands unhesitating and unwavering faith 
therein; a faith born of the truth of God, and con- 
sequently to the mind certain as it is certain that God 
can neither be deceived Himself nor deceive His crea- 
tures. 

The only difficulty is to know when man is sure that 
God has revealed the truth. No voice from heaven 
speaks in tones audible to us all, telling us what we are 
to believe. True, we have the Sacred Scriptures; but 
the dead letter of the Scriptures was never meant to be 
our teacher; they were originally addressed to men who 
were already in the possession of the truths of faith by 
means of moral teaching, and if they were meant to be 
the source from which we were to deduce our articles of 
faith, how would it have fared for centuries with those 
souls who were unable to possess a volume of the in- 
spired Word. Again, even admitting that the Scrip- 
tures be the rule of faith, how could we gather from 
them with unfailing certainty that which God has re- 

190 



FEAST OF SAINT PETER AND SAINT PAUL. 

vealed; since our intellect is fallible, liable to error. 
How then are we to know with absolute certainty all that 
God has revealed ? The youngest child brought up and 
educated in the Catholic Religion knows full well that 
when Christ came upon this world to fulfill His mission 
of teaching the truths of Salvation to mankind He did 
not leave them to haphazard, He must have left them to 
the world in such a manner that they could not be tam- 
pered with by men. He must have left them with His 
Church, who was to be their guardian and expositor. He 
must have left them with the Apostles and their succes- 
sors, whom He commanded to go to the utmost limits of 
the earth teaching whatsoever He had commanded; left 
them to a Church which is infallible, since He Himself 
remains with Her, guiding Her, and preserving Her 
from error or decay. " Behold I am with you all days, 
even unto the consummation of the world." Within the 
Church then we are certain of the truths that Christ has 
revealed to man; whatever they may be, we have only to 
inquire if they are taught by the Church Catholic. The 
Church having once set Her seal upon them we accept 
them as firmly and as unhesitatingly as though we heard 
Jesus Christ speaking to us individually. It matters 
not how incomprehensible they may be, how far above 
the capacity of our intellect; the Church having spoken 
the voice of Peter speaks through the Papacy. We 
know that voice to be the voice of infallible truth which 
cannot deceive, and our heads bow down as we make the 
profession: I believe in the one Holy Catholic and 
Apostolic Church. 

And now, my friends, let us turn to the faith of Peter 
and Paul, let us see what manner of men they were in 
the belief of the truths, the truths taught by Christ. 
Peter lived and walked, as you know, with our Blessed 
Lord, as one of the chosen twelve. Paul was after- 
wards elected, and though he was not present to see the 
great works and wonders that were done by our Blessed 

191 



XVIII. SERMON. 

Lord, we find that when the time came for him to deny 
his faith or give testimony to its truth by the shedding 
of his blood, he walked forth as boldly and as fearlessly 
as the Prince Apostle, St. Peter. There are two ways 
by which we may examine the lives of men: We may 
recount their deeds and acts from the day of birth to 
that of death, and thus be able to form some idea of 
them; or, as in the present case, we may speak of some 
particular acts of their lives and, wishing to bring out 
their peculiar characteristics, we may show the diffi- 
culties with which they had to contend and thus obtain 
a better and fuller idea of them. 

Now this is what we propose to do with regard to these 
two Saints, Peter and Paul. We would like to set them 
before you as two men of active real faith; and to do so 
we will not recount the great works or deeds they accom- 
plished, but ask the question: What difficulties had 
they to contend with in the practice of their belief? 
"Now the obstacles to faith in the days of St. Peter were 
just the same as those of to-day. Many might be men- 
tioned, but we will select three which are most promi- 
nent. In the first place, the doctrines which are re- 
vealed to us are above us, and beyond our comprehen- 
sion. They were above and beyond that of the Apos- 
tles, and yet they did not waver in their faith. As an 
example, take the Institution of the Holy Eucharist; 
our Blessed Lord, surrounded by a multitude on the side 
of a hill, tells them that they must eat His flesh and drink 
His blood if they would enjoy life everlasting. They 
are amazed and horrified at the declaration. What! 
Eat this Man's flesh and drink His blood? How can 
this be done ? This is a hard saying ; who can believe 
it? But our Blessed Lord does not alter what He has 
said, but goes on and insists, tells them again that they 
must eat His flesh and drink His blood if they would be 
raised up on the last day, and live forever. What then 
do they do? They hear Him repeating that strange 

192 



FEAST OF SAINT PETER AND SAINT PAUL. 

truth which they cannot understand, and sooner than 
believe, turn back, as the Scripture says, and walk no 
more with Him. Turning then to His Apostles, He 
says to them : " Will you also go away ? For you must 
give assent to this truth ; I claim from you what I asked 
from the multitude. Will you also go away ? " And 
Peter, the man of strong faith, stepping forward, says: 
" Master, to whom shall we go ? You have the words 
of eternal life, we believe and we know that thou art 
Christ the Son of God." St. Paul was not present at 
this scene, but who can doubt that he would have acted 
as St. Peter did when we read the words that are ad- 
dressed by that Holy Apostle to the Corinthians. He 
tells them of the Institution of the Most Holy Sacra- 
ment, and he warns them to prove themselves before 
they attempt to eat of that bread or drink of that chalice ; 
for whosoever shall eat His bread or drink of the chalice 
of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and 
blood of our Lord. Such was the faith of these Apos- 
tles^ the word of Christ was sufficient. They did not 
question the truth as men nowadays do. They did not 
ask Him to show them His body in the Host or His 
blood in the chalice, no more than they asked Him to 
show them the divinity that was hidden under His flesh 
and blood. It was enough for Him to assert, and Peter 
would answer : " Lord, though I do not comprehend 
how men are to live and be nourished by this food, still, 
I again say, whither shall I go for truth if thou, who art 
the Son of God and hast the words of eternal life dost 
not give it to me." How many men to-day, if they had 
been present among that multitude, would have shaken 
their heads and said with the Jews : " This is hard to 
believe, we cannot understand it, it is contradictory to 
our reason, and we will not believe. How many Catho- 
lics even are saying by their actions, if we are to judge 
them by their long absence from this Table of the Lord, 
that they do not believe this truth ? " 

193 



XVIII. SERMON. 

Another great difficulty with which the Apostles had 
to contend and with which we, too, must struggle, was 
public opinion. . In other words, human pride must be 
fought down and conquered if we would be true to the 
practice of our faith. The multitude in the days of 
Peter were opposed to Christ, dealt with Him as a crim- 
inal, and yet Peter, despite the incredulity and unbelief 
of the multitude, remained faithful. The moment came 
when all that was noble, all that was learned, all that was 
holy in the city of Jerusalem cried out against Jesus and 
condemned Him as a blasphemer and seducer of the 
people. Yet Peter, despite that solemn sentence pro- 
nounced upon our Lord by the ruler and people, 
would adore the condemned Son of God, and there un- 
der the very eyes of the people and judges shed bitter 
tears for his fault committed in a moment of forgetful- 
ness. Nay, more ; in a few days, the wealth, the wis- 
dom, and the sanctity of that city heard Peter's voice 
preaching Christ crucified. The Holy Ghost had come 
down upon the Apostles, they began to speak in divers 
tongues, and when the people heard them there were 
some who w T ondered and asked : " What meaneth this ? " 
But others mocked, and cried out : " These men are 
full of new wine." But Peter, caring little for their 
mockery, arises, and lifting up his voice, speaks to them, 
saying: " Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell in 
Jerusalem, be this known to you and with your ears re- 
ceive my words. These men are not drunk as you sup- 
pose, but what the prophet Joel foretold is accomplished 
in them." He then upbraids them with the death of 
Christ and proves to them that they have crucified their 
Saviour. 

St. Paul, too, remains true to Christ. You know of 
his wonderful conversion, you know how he had perse- 
cuted the first Christians, and yet, after his conversion, 
behold his victory over the opinions of men! They 
must have spoken of him, they must have considered 

194 



FEAST OF SAINT PETER AND SAINT PAUL. 

him a traitor to their cause, since they sought to put him 
to death; and yet we find that he cared not for their 
opinions, that he was deaf to the voice of human pride 
when it came between himself and his Divine Master. 
He tells the Corinthians in writing to them that he cares 
not for their opinions and their judgment of him. " As 
to me," he says, " it is a thing of the least account to be 
judged by human judgment ; " and again, in the same 
chapter, he says : " We are fools for Christ's sake, we 
are made as the refuse of the world, as the off-scour- 
ing ; " yet, during all this, he preaches Christ crucified 
with a boldness that was never before witnessed, and 
with an eloquence that was resistless. Ah ! how often 
are we timid and faint-hearted in styling ourselves 
Catholics and followers of Jesus Christ ! It may be our 
lot to move among those who differ from us in religion, 
who now and then fling ridicule upon it in our presence ; 
we stand by blushing, perhaps denying our faith. It 
may be that in our business relations we are thrown 
among those who profess some religion because it is 
fashionable, and then, because we have to strike some 
sharp bargain with them, we are heard confessing in 
their presence that all religions are good, and that we 
can be saved equally in any one of them. It may hap- 
pen that we are thrown into mixed society at a time 
when the Church enjoins abstinence. Again our faith 
is placed on one side and the opinion of men upon the 
other. Those present do not know that we are Catholics 
and we are not going to make them wiser by obeying the 
law of abstinence; so our faith is sacrificed to human 
opinion. . 

Another difficulty in the way of the practice of our 
faith is persecution of one kind or another. In follow- 
ing the lives of St. Peter and St. Paul, how courageous 
do they appear in professing their faith, no matter with 
what punishment they were threatened! Peter is 
brought before the council and told to preach no more in 

195 



XVIII. SERMON. 

the name of this man who is called Christ; he makes 
answer and says to them : "If it be just in the sight of 
God to hear you rather than God, judge ye." On the 
morrow he is thrown into prison. Still he preaches and 
continues to preach; finally he is crucified as was his 
Divine Master upon the cross. The same perseverance 
in preaching the Gospel is shown by St. Paul. No per- 
secution could shake his constancy. Pie tells us that five 
times he received forty stripes save one : " Thrice was 
I beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered 
shipwreck. A night and a day I was in the depth of the 
sea." Besides these he tells us that he was often exposed 
to the dangers of traveling, often hungry, often thirsty, 
often cold and naked. Like St. Peter, the day came when 
he was thrown into prison and called upon to give up his 
faith; like St. Peter, he walked forth boldly to meet the 
headsman and seal his faith by shedding his blood. 
Here, are our models in faith; cling to that Faith pur- 
chased for us by the sufferings of Jesus Christ, and pre- 
served for us through the persecution of centuries; cling 
to it with the tenacity and the constancy of Saints Peter 
and Paul ! Believe and practise all that Holy Religion 
teaches and enjoins, despite the incomprehensibility of 
its dogmas. Cling to it through persecutions, so that 
you may say : " I have fought a good fight, I have 
finished my course, I have kept the Faith." For the 
rest, there is laid up for us a crown of justice which the 
Lord the just Judge will give to us on that last day, and 
not only to us, but to them also who love His name. 



196 



XIX. SEEMON. 
COMMEMORATION OF ALL SOULS. 



" It is a holy and ivholesome thought to pray 

for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins." 

Math. xii. 46. 



The Church has many Festivals, festivals of joy and 
festivals of sadness. She has her Christmas, when with 
joyful strains we assemble around the crib at Bethlehem, 
when she tells us that our Redemption is at hand; that 
the night of sin and shame has been dispelled, and that 
we may again lift up our heads and cry with joy: 
" Glory to God in the highest and peace upon earth to 
men of good will." She has her Easter, another day of 
gladness, bidding us to have hope that the grave wherein 
we saw our Saviour's body placed is empty, that He has 
arisen, that the grave is not to have the mastery over a 
single soul believing in Jesus Christ our Lord. She has 
her Ash Wednesday, when she puts on the garb of pen- 
ance and. brings us to the Altar side to receive the ashes 
upon our heads, and to remind us that no matter what 
our health, fortune, or age, we must leave this world, 
die, and mingle with the dust from which we were taken. 
She has her Good Friday, when we gather lovingly 
about the foot of the Cross, when She puts before us the 
dying Jesus and makes us follow Him in spirit to the 

197 



XIX. SERMON. 

grave, there to kneel and weep, to kiss the sacred wounds 
that we have made by our sins, while we resolve never 
again to be the cause of pain or suffering to that inno- 
cent victim. 

Such are her Feasts of joy and of sadness. Once 
only in the year does She seem to bring both together on 
the same day. But a few moments ago we were prais- 
ing the Saints in glory, and scarcely had we ceased when 
the Requiem of the dead began. This is a day upon 
which the entire Church in heaven, on earth and in 
purgatory come together. It is a day upon which the 
Church triumphant, the Church militant, and the Church 
suffering meet and look into one another's faces. We 
raise as it were the curtain that hides us from the other 
world, and looking in we discover the multitude of Saints 
whom St. John describes in the Apocalypse as a multitude 
made up of every tongue and tribe, and nation, every 
age and sex praising and glorifying God. We behold 
this beautiful sight and our hearts expand with delight, 
we half wish that life's trials were over, and that we 
had entered into that heavenly city, where there is no 
mourning or sadness. We look, and despair leaves us 
as we learn the lesson that we, too, may be called as 
Saints, that we, too, may, if we wish, share these ever- 
lasting joys hereafter. Again we raise the curtain, and 
this time our vision rests upon a scene of suffering; we 
behold God, not in His glory but in His justice; we see 
the punishment of sin, we see souls suffering and suffer- 
ing voluntarily the blemishes of sin and the punishment 
due to it. We hear the voices of those who have passed 
from this world calling upon us to aid and assist them, 
and from them we learn the lesson that we must seek 
to avoid if possible this place of temporary punishment, 
and at the same time do something for those who are 
suffering there. Let us take these lessons to heart, let 
us learn that we are called to be Saints, and that we may 
become Saints, let us learn to avoid the pains of Purga- 

198 



COMMEMORATION OF ALL SOULS. 

tory, and while in this world practise some devotion 
toward those holy souls confined there. Any one of 
these different subjects would be a sufficient text for your 
instruction, but I would say a few words on each of 
them. 

We are called to be Saints; to the unbeliever this is 
a meaningless phrase, but to us who have faith it is full 
of meaning. It means that after life is over we are to 
be forever happy with God. It means that while we 
are on this earth we are but in a land of pilgrimage, a 
place of exile, sighing for our true home in heaven. It 
means therefore that we must not allow ourselves to be 
charmed by the beauties of this world, that we must not 
suffer ourselves to be allured from the path that leads 
direct to heaven by anything that the world can offer us. 
We are called to be Saints. This is the first truth we 
learned after we knew that of the existence of God. We 
were asked in our childhood why God made us, and we 
answered, taught by our Holy Religion, that it was to 
serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him in 
the next ; in other words, that while in this world we 
should follow the precept given by Him to His chosen 
people, wherein He said : " Be ye Holy as I also am 
Holy." 

" Be ye sanctified ; " this is His call, this His command. 
You may ask: Is this an easy matter? Is it not diffi- 
cult, is it not impossible for the poor sinner struggling 
with the enemy, to become a Saint ? In reply we would 
say, that what has been once accomplished may be ac- 
complished again under the same circumstances; that if 
men before us, living in this world surrounded by temp- 
tation and sin as we are, became saints, so may we like- 
wise. We 'have only to foresee the obstacles which are 
placed in our way and endeavor to overcome them. We 
would not deceive you by telling you that it is an easy 
matter and so lead you into the dreadful sin of pre- 
sunrotion; neither would we say to you that it is a diffi- 

199 



XIX. SERMON. 

cult undertaking, and thereby cause you to be guilty of 
the sin of despair; we would say to you that it is both 
easy and difficult. If we consider the question of be- 
coming saints as the most of men do, not taking God's 
help and assistance into consideration; then it is a most 
difficult work and we must needs despair of attaining it. 
If we consider our nature, study it, and behold its prone- 
ness to sin, its corruption, and its tendency to every- 
thing that is unlawful, we have but little to hope for ; 
and this is what men do when they despair. They will 
tell you that they cannot give up such and such a vice, 
that there is no use in their assisting at Mass or frequent- 
ing the Sacraments, it is with them a foregone conclu- 
sion. They have considered but one side of the ques- 
tion, they have noticed the inclinations of their baser 
natures to sin, they will tell you it is no use to strive, 
they must necessarily yield again ; and soon the poor soul 
finds itself in a state of despair. 

In this sense, and as these people consider it, the work 
of salvation, the duty of saving our souls is arduous, and 
we may never hope to accomplish it. But in another 
sense it is easy for us to become saints. Let us but- 
open our hearts to the teaching of our Holy Religion 
on this subject, let us permit the light of God's truth to 
illumine our minds, and how easy, how quickly we will 
resolve that henceforth we will labor to sanctify our 
souls and keep them pleasing in God's sight. Let us 
but endeavor to form an idea of God's great desire that 
we should become saints and of the assistance which He 
is willing to render, nay more, that He will do the work 
for us if we but ardently desire it, and Oh ! how changed, 
how easy the task will become. What has not Jesus 
Christ done to save us ; what has He left undone that He 
could have performed in the present established order ? 
He became man for us, He taught us both by word and 
example for three and thirty years, He subjected Him- 
self to all the miseries that human nature is heir to save 

200 



COMMEMORATION OF ALL SOULS. 

sin, finally He paid the price of our redemption which 
cost Him His life. He did not then leave us orphans, 
He did not quit the world, but He remains with us still 
striving to sanctify us, for this did He establish His 
Church, for this did He send His Apostles to teach, for 
this did He institute the Sacraments, those channels of 
grace which render the soul saintly, for this did He 
through His ministers perpetuate the sacrifice made 
upon Calvary, for this finally does He remain with us 
upon our altars, inviting us to daily converse with Him- 
self, for this does He feed and replenish our souls with 
His own body and blood that He might thus, as it were, 
identify Himself with us, as far as consistent with our 
own personal individuality, so that we might be clothed 
with His own beauty, with His own grace, and especially 
with His own power over the devil and our evil inclina- 
tions. Verily there was nothing that He could do for 
His vineyard that He has not done. Verily the work 
of salvation is easy if we wish to correspond with God's 
grace, and make use of the means which He has placed 
at our disposal; verily He has made His yoke sweet and 
His burden light for those who wish to assume it. 

Again the salvation of our souls is not impossible if 
we consider the lives of those who have gone before us. 
To-day, the Church giving us a glimpse of heaven, tells 
us in Her Divine Office that after the Choirs of Angels 
its inhabitants are Patriarchs, Prophets, Holy Doctors 
of the Law, Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins, 
Hermits and numberless Saints. All these were similar 
to ourselves, they lived upon this world, they possessed 
the same nature, had the same difficulties to contend 
with; they had no greater help than we have, they were 
members of the same Church and partook of the same 
Sacraments, and to-day they are confirmed in glory. 
There are there souls who performed deeds of heroism, 
there are martyrs, young and old, who gave their life's 
blood for their faith, there are hermits who lived for 

201 



XIX. SERMON. 

years shut out from the rest of mankind doing penance 
for their sins. When we reflect upon their lives we 
shudder with fear and say that we will not be able to 
do as they have done. Well, we are not called upon to- 
day to do as they have done, we are not asked to shed our 
blood for our religion, we are but asked to practise it; 
we are but asked to do as other souls have done that go 
to make up that vast throng, we are but called upon to 
perforin faithfully the duties that our state of life im- 
poses upon us ; w T e are but called upon to abstain from 
mortal sin. This is our one great duty and into this 
all others may be resolved. Avoid mortal sin and you 
will become a saint, for mortal sin alone can kill the 
soul, and if it be our good fortune to live without mortal 
sin, to die without mortal sin upon our souls, then when 
we have expiated our smaller sins, we will be permitted 
to enjoy the glories of the Saints, to be saints forever 
with God. 

But now let us give thought to the souls in Purgatory. 
The lessons we learn from their sufferings are: To 
avoid that place of expiation, and to resolve to do some- 
thing for those confined there. Our Holy Faith teaches 
us that if we depart from this life w r ith a single blemish 
upon our souls, or with any temporal satisfaction due to 
God for our past offences, after their guilt has been re- 
moved in the Sacrament of Penance, we may not expect 
to see the face of God until that stain is removed or that 
debt paid to offended justice; for nothing defiled can 
enter heaven. How then are you to avoid this place of 
suffering? Simply by leading sinless lives. If we 
would avoid these punishments we must not only seek 
to put aside mortal sin, but we must advance a step fur- 
ther and endeavor to live without committing voluntary 
venial sin; and if, unfortunately, as all of us have, we 
should have committed mortal sin whose guilt has been 
remitted in the Sacrament, but for which we have not 
done sufficient penance, or if we have fallen into venial 

- 202 



COMMEMORATION OF ALL SOULS. 

sin, then we must have recourse to the indulgences which 
are held out by the Church. How many indulgences 
might we gain every day of our lives; what a great in- 
dulgence may we not now avail ourselves of by making 
a Jubilee. 

You all know what an Indulgence is; it is not the re- 
mission of sin, but it is the remission of the punishment 
due to sin. Here then is our opportunity for cleansing 
our souls from sin in the Sacrament of Penance, and of 
gaining this indulgence which is plenary in its effect, if 
we only fulfill all the conditions which are necessary. 
By gaining this indulgence not only will our souls be 
cleansed from sin, but likewise from all the punishment 
due to sin. This then is our first lesson: To acquire 
all the indulgences we can. If in societies, let us find 
out what indulgences we may gain, and on what days we 
may gain them. If we become accustomed to say fixed 
formulas of prayer, to wear scapulars or medals, or to 
perform other devotional works to which the Church has 
attached indulgences, let us learn what they are, so that 
in the performance of these different works we may gain 
the indulgence that is offered. Have the intention in 
your morning prayers of seeking to gain all the indul- 
gences that the Church may have affixed to any of the 
actions that you are about to perform ; then you may hope, 
if in the state of grace, to obtain the remission of much 
of the punishment which would be otherwise due to your 
sins. 

Our second lesson is: To learn to do something for 
those poor souls in Purgatory. What a beautiful, what 
a consoling doctrine, to know that after we have passed 
from this world we will not be forgotten by our friends 
and by our Holy Mother the* Church. We plead with you 
for these poor souls. We plead in the name of your 
friends whose bodies you followed tearfully to the grave, 
but whose souls are now suffering and forgotten by you. 
We plead in the name of a good father and a kind mother^ 

203 



XIX. SERMON. 

we plead in the name of a brother, or a sister, or your 
loved wife, to whom on the death bed yon promised to 
be ever mindful of in your prayers. We plead in be- 
half of the souls now suffering in purgatory, and we ask 
you plainly what will you do for them during this 
month of jSTovember, which is peculiarly devoted to those 
holy souls ? Were we to tell you how best to aid them, 
we would say that the most powerful means is the Holy 
Sacrifice of Mass. On all Souls Day the whole Catholic 
world over, that Holy Sacrifice is offered from the rising 
of the sun even to the going down of the same. That 
sacrifice is offered for the souls of the faithful departed. 
The feast of All Souls is not a Holy Day of Obligation, 
it is not a day upon which we are obliged to be present 
at Mass under pain of committing mortal sin ; but it is 
a day of devotion. Surely it will not be asking too much 
of you to be present to put up your prayers and to unite 
with the Priest in asking Almighty God to receive this 
action of yours in their behalf. Were we asked what else 
you might do, we would request you to offer them your 
indulgences, we would request you give alms, for charity 
covers a multitude of sins. We would ask you to pray 
for them, and if it might be permitted to mention a time 
at which you should pray for them particularly, we would 
say, let it be when you receive your Lord in Communion. 
Then when Jesus Christ is within you, when you are 
making known to Him your many wants and necessities, 
when you are thanking Him for the many favors He has 
conferred upon you, then let not the faithful dead be for- 
gotten, but ask Him to have mercy upon them and to 
take them to Himself in heaven. 

Permit not this month to go by without performing 
some w T orks for these holy souls, or rather, permit not 
this present hour to go by without resolving that during 
this month you will practise some daily devotion in be- 
half of them. You who can, resolve if possible to be 
present atjthe Holy Sacrifice of the Mass daily during 

204 



COMMEMORATION OF ALL SOULS. 

this month, so that your prayers may be offered to our 
dear Lord while He is mystically immolated upon our 
Altar. Enter into this season of the Church's devotion 
and rest assured that when our time comes to bid adieu 
to this earth, these prayers, these indulgences, these 
many acts of devotion which we now perform in behalf 
of those poor souls will not be lost to us, but will be 
given back to us a hundred fold. 



205 



XX. SERMON. 
THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 



44 Many daughters have gathered together 

riches, thou hast surpassed them ally 

prov. xiii. 29. 



If it were my object to call to mind the many pious 
souls who have passed from earth, and who are now en- 
joying in Heaven the reward of their labors, what a 
bright roll of names we might unfold before the world's 
gaze. We would find an army of heroines in the Chris- 
tian fold, we would find there young maidens with the 
promise of a long and happy life before them sacrificing 
their all out of love for Christ and His holy religion; 
we would find the elderly maiden turning aside from the 
world after years of folly and spending the time allotted 
to her in penance for the past ; we would find there names 
whose history could not be written, and whose w T orks of 
piety and devotion would scarcely be credited, so far 
would they seem to be above human power. There are 
those who have been born to rank and station in life, 
leaving it all to seek quiet and peace inside the walls of 
a convent; and of all those holy souls we might say that 
they were many daughters who had gathered together 
riches. And so if we examine the Old Testament, we 
shall find there likewise an array of heroines unsur- 
passed, nay, unequalled in history. Those inspired 
books are full of illustrious names, but it will not be 

206 



THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 

difficult for us to recognize at the same time that their 
deeds, like those of their counterparts in the New Testa- 
ment, were small in comparison with those of MARY. 

We shall find inscribed there the name of a Deborah 
who had conquered the enemies of God's chosen people, 
and sang her song of victory; but Mary triumphed over 
the enemy, not of a people or of a country, but of the 
whole human race and so sang her canticle of jov and 
praise: THE MAGNIFICAT. 

We find there the name of Judith who saved the city 
of Bethulia in striking off the head of Holof ernes; but 
Mary in giving a Saviour to the world crushed the head 
of the serpent and delivered the whole human race from 
its state of slavery and bondage. We find there the 
name of an Esther who found grace and favor before the 
great king Assuerus, and who liberated from death a 
proscribed people, but Mary finds grace and favor before 
the King of kings, and so turns aside the anger of Divine 
justice that was about to descend upon a guilty race. Of 
these holy souls we might too exclaim with the inspired 
writer that there were many daughters who had gathered 
riches: yet we must confess with him that there was one 
who surpassed them all, Mary the Mother of God. In 
their midst she rises like the Sun in the Heavens, she 
rises more beautiful and more charming than all the 
daughters of God, for she bears upon her brow a triple 
coronet that gives her a right to superiority and places 
her inferior in the Heavenly court to only Christ him- 
self. 

Her first diadem is that of her Immaculate Concep- 
tion. As soon as the breath of life is breathed into us, 
our souls are tainted with the stain of original sin. But 
Mary was preserved from that stain, and her pure soul 
from the very first moment of existence was pleasing in 
the sight of God. Born into this world children of wrath 
we are deprived of the ornament of grace, our souls are 
soiled with the sin of our first parents, and we appear in 

207 



XX. SERMON. 

the sight of God as objects of hatred, nay, more, while in 
that state we are under the dominion of Satan, " for by 
one man sin entered into the world/' says St. Paul, 
" and by sin, death, and so death passed upon all men in 
whom all have sinned.'' Death, according to St. Paul, 
is the effect of sin, and as all men die, the young and old, 
those who have attained the age of wisdom and those who 
are but infants, so all must have sinned in that one man, 
Adam. Nor was this truth of the transmission of sin 
a new truth taught by St. Paul, for the Jews were fully 
aware of it and hence it was that Job could ask : " Who 
can make him clean that is conceived unclean. Is it not 
only thou who art," and that the Psalmist could cry out 
in his groanings : " Behold I was conceived in iniquity 
and in sin did my Mother conceive me." Sin abounded 
throughout, the whole world was sold under sin ; of one 
creature alone could it be said that the Lord possessed 
her in the beginning of His ways; Mary alone escaped 
the universal shipwreck by the preventing grace of God. 
On for centuries had flowed that deluge of sin, on for 
centuries will it continue to flow, upon each soul as it is 
created; about one alone, save Christ, rising like a light 
house in the ocean, will those waters dash without being 
able to affect her in the least. Her soul comes unsullied, 
ravishing by its beauty the eye of the beholder, so that 
he is obliged to exclaim : " Who is she that cometh 
forth as the morning, rising, fair as the moon, bright as 
the sun ? " Who is she that rises upon that dark night 
of sin which enveloped the world, who is she that pales 
with her brilliancy the countless saints in the firmament 
of God's glory ? Who is she who comes like an army 
drawTt up in battle array against the reign of Satan ? It 
is she who was promised as the one who would conquer 
the arch fiend of man, when God uttered these words in 
the garden of Eden to the serpent : " I will put enmities 
between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed; 
she shall crush thy head and thou shalt lie in^wait for 

208 



THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 

her heel." Ah, who can describe the beauties of that 
pure soul! No stain upon it; nay, more, says St. 
Gregory : " It was not only conceived without original 
sin, but in the very first moment of its existence, its 
grace and sanctity equalled and surpassed the beauty of 
all the angels and Saints." " It was the house of the 
Lord prepared on the top of the mountains." It was 
elevated and raised above all in its greatness and sanc- 
tity. Estimate if you can the graces and spiritual treas- 
ures of our souls ; estimate if you can the merits of St. 
John the Baptist living a life of penance for thirty years 
in the desert; tell if you can the graces of the Martyrs 
in the first ages of the Church, of those holy fathers who 
withdrew from the world and their friends, and hid 
themselves from the eyes of men in order that they might 
lead holy lives; of that line of virgins who gave up all 
for Christ's sake; estimate their penance, their prayers 
and their works of charity. Estimate the beauty of the 
saints who praise God continually, glance at the Angelic 
choirs who surround the throne of the most High, ever 
singing : " Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth." 
Put all these glories, all these beauties, all these graces 
together, make of them all one magnificent treasure and 
say that God bestowed a beauty like to that upon the 
immaculate soul of Mary His Mother, and you will have 
some idea of the riches with which that bright soul was 
adorned in the first moment of her conception, for it was 
founded upon the very summit of the mountain. But 
even when tired, weary, breathless as we may be in as- 
cending those mountains of sanctity, we have but a faint 
picture of the beauty of Mary's soul, for we must re- 
member that every moment of her life was an advance 
in sanctity. 

There is an opinion among Theologians founded on 

Scripture that the actual grace which God gives us to 

perform any action corresponds to the sanctifying grace 

that is within us; if we perform the action for which 

14 209 



XX. SERMON. 

this grace is given in accordance and with the wish of 
the Holy Spirit, the habitual grace that is within us be- 
comes twice as great; in other words it is doubled, and 
so the increase goes on whenever we act in conformity 
w r ith the Holy Spirit guiding and directing us. You will 
better understand this by the parable given us in the 
Gospel. We read there of a Master who distributed 
pieces of money among his servants, to one He gives five 
talents, to another two ; going away they made use of 
them, and the one gained another five and the other 
another two; so also with us if we correspond to the 
graces we receive we will some of us receive another five 
and some another two. Like to a person who would use 
his money in such a way that it would always increase 
to twice its original value. To Mary then, God granted 
actual grace as He did to the Saints, and never before 
was there a correspondence to grace like Mary's. Every 
moment of her life of sixty-three years in this world was 
spent in acts of love and adoration. Even in her sleep 
every moment w r as meritorious, for in her sleep she 
had the exercise of her reason. Judge then of the graces 
that must have adorned that soul. She began more pure 
more holy than all the saints and angels in heaven. 
With her increase of grace, how beautiful, how brilliant 
must have been her pure soul. She might be likened to 
a man who began life with the riches of all the kings of 
earth, and who went on increasing them every moment 
of his life ; every moment saw them double, every mo- 
ment of time that ticked upon his clock told him that 
his riches had increased two fold. " Verily thou hast 
set upon her head a crown of precious stones." 

The second diadem that Mary might claim is that of 
Queen in heaven, for she is no less than the Spouse of 
God the Father. Take up the Scriptures again and you 
will read of the angel's visit. There in the poor city of 
Nazareth dwelt a virgin child, one who had consecrated 
herself to God from her infancy, unknown and un- 

210 



THE BLESSED VIHGIN. 

thought of by the world, she led an humble and obscure 
life; no, not obscure, for the angels in heaven looked 
down upon that poor dwelling and within its walls be- 
held a treasure dear to the Most High. They looked, 
and heard one of their chosen number, the great Gabriel, 
asking Mary's consent to become the Spouse of the Most 
High. He salutes her as a messenger might well salute 
the queen of his king : " Hail full of grace, Hail thou 
who hast surpassed all others in amassing spiritual 
treasures, all hail ! The Lord is with thee, thou art 
pleasing in His sight, and thou art blessed among 
women, for thou alone art the child of benediction for all 
mankind." And the tender maiden hearing this saluta- 
tion was troubled, for she knew not as yet its nature; 
but the angel seeing her embarrassment bids her to fear 
not for she has found grace with God. " Behold thou 
shalt conceive in thy womb and thou shalt bring forth a 
son and thou shalt call His name Jesus." Mary re- 
membering the pledge of her virginity, remembering 
the solemn promise she had made to God, could not give 
her consent until" she knew whether or not it could be 
accomplished without in any way affecting her consecra- 
tion to God's service; hence she asked: " How can this 
be ? " And the angel answering, said to her : " The 
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the 
Most High shall overshadow thee, therefore the Holy 
One w 7 hich shall be born of thee shall be called the Son 
of God." And Mary replied : " Behold the handmaid 
of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word." 
My consent is given. This body, which is thine by cre- 
ation and by consecration as all other creatures are thine 
I also give up to thee in accordance with thy request, 
entirely, absolutely; I give it to thee in order that thy 
will may be accomplished within me. " Be it done 
unto me according to thy word." These are the es- 
pousals between Mary and the Eternal Father, this the 
contract agreed upon by Mary with Heaven's ambassa- 

211 



XX. SERMON. 

dor; a contract which makes Mary the_Spouse of the 
Most High, since she is the Mother of His Divine Son. 
Truly this is a sublime dignity, a dignity sufficient in 
itself to win the love and the devotion of the entire 
world. 

The principal work of God in creation is not this 
beautiful world that we witness, neither is it the world 
of spirits. The principal work of God is not man with 
all his greatness, though made in the image and likeness 
of God Himself; neither is it the Immaculate Virgin 
Mary, spotless as she is, though she be fairer than Eve 
who was clothed with innocence and endowed with 
immortality. The principal work of God and the great- 
est effected by His almighty power was the Man-God, 
Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And now behold 
the dignity of Mary as the Spouse of the Father ; she 
is to participate in the production of God's great- 
est work. From her pure flesh will be formed the 
human body of that divine person, and her pure blood is 
hereafter to beat and pulsate in the heart of God. Great 
indeed is this dignity of Mary, the Mother of God. Oh, 
wonderful dignity for a creature to be the Mother of her 
Creator. Consider that Mother and Son ; an infant, He 
reclines in her arms; a helpless babe, He subjects Him- 
self to be placed here or to be placed there as Mary sees 
fit. To her He looks for the necessaries of life, to her 
He looks for all His little wants. Truly, to look about 
the universe and contemplate its size we are struck with 
astonishment at its order, its harmony, its vastness, and 
we are more than astonished when we think of the 
mysterious power that works all these wonders, but is it 
not more wonderful to behold God himself in the arms 
of a creature ? Wonderful is God's power in supplying 
the wants of all living things upon this earth. " He but 
opens His hand," says the Psalmist, " and all wants are 
supplied." But is it not more wonderful to behold God 
Himself within Mary's arms trusting to her to nourish 

212 



THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 

Him ? Who could penetrate that mysterious infancy of 
Christ our Lord and tell its wonders, He grows up and 
Mary teaches the God of creation to lisp in human lan- 
guage, she teaches Him to make use of His little limbs, 
to follow her about the house as she performs her daily 
duties. The age of manhood is attained and He lives 
on in obedience to Mary. What forbids us to suppose 
that Jesus did towards His Mother what dutiful chil- 
dren are wont to do when they manifest their feelings of 
respect and love for their parents ; what forbids us to 
suppose that He who enjoined the command: " Children, 
honor thy father and thy mother/' obeyed His own in- 
junction. Yes, He was obedient to them; we are told 
this in the Gospel. After He had been found in the 
temple we see Him retiring with them to dwell in poverty 
working as an artisan for His livelihood. And during 
all these years, those thirty years, who can tell the mutual 
love of Jesus and Mary. Sum up all you have heard or 
all you have read of the love of a mother for her child 
or the love of a child for its mother. Imagine all that 
thought can conceive or words utter with regard to 
maternal love and filial obedience; picture the kindly 
spoken words, the loving smiles that are exchanged, the 
tender looks that are given, the embraces that pass be- 
tween a loving mother and a loving child, and even then 
you have not a correct idea of the affection existing be- 
tween Mary and her darling Child. To understand 
their love you must become acquainted with their feel- 
ings, and to do that you must fathom the secret of their 
hearts. The heart of Mary most pure, the heart of 
Jesus most loving, throb for throb, sigh for sigh, joy for 
joy ; the heart of Jesus rests upon the heart of Mary and 
there finds a love that is not human, a love that is far 
more than angelic ; it is the love of a mother for her God, 
the love of God for His Mother. 

Such was the life of these souls upon earth; it was a 
life of mutual love. Death came and severed Mary 

213 



XX. SERMON. 

from the corporal presence of her Son, but later on again 
death came and united Mary with Him. Is it difficult 
for us to understand how that same love which bound 
those holy souls together in this life still exists in 
Heaven ? Is it hard for us to understand to what an 
eminence Mary must have been raised in heaven if this 
life be a life of merit ? Here she took care of her God 
and ministered to His wants, watched over Him in His 
infancy, directed Him in His youth and suffered in- 
tensely with Him during His passion; she shared in the 
joys and sufferings of our Blessed Lord upon this earth 
more than any other creature, a partaker in all His 
works; in His glory will she not be permitted to partici- 
pate ? And as His glory is in the highest in heaven, will 
we not be doing right when we place at His right hand 
above the Seraphim and Cherubim, above all the saints 
and Doctors of the Church, His Immaculate Mother 
Mary, hailing her as did the Angel as full of grace, as 
the Queen of Angels, the Queen of Patriarchs and Pro- 
phets, the Queen of Apostles, the Queen of Martyrs ? 
Yes, my friends, we are right in honoring her, for God 
Himself honored her, the Trinity honored her in grant- 
ing her the greatest blessing that could be given to a crea- 
ture, namely, the honor of being the Mother of God. As 
good Christians let us honor then the Mother of God, 
and let us remember that her power with her divine Son 
is beyond calculation ; let us gather then about her Altars 
on the feast of the Immaculate Conception and offer to 
her our litanies and songs of praise. Gather you who 
are pure in the sight of God and free from sin, for here 
is your queen, the Queen of Purity. Gather you who 
are bent under the weight of mortal sin, whose souls are 
darkened; gather around, for remember that Mary is 
your mother, the refuge of sinners ; gather about you who 
are exposed to temptation and dangers every day of your 
life, for remember that she is the Virgin most powerful; 
gather about you who are afflicted through life, you who 

214 



THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 

suffer from poverty and want, you who are made wretched 
in your family, for remember she is the consoler of the 
afflicted. All will find hope and consolation in Mary the 
Mother of Mercy. 

But besides invoking the Blessed Virgin there is an- 
other duty that we should practise, and that is, that we 
should endeavor to imitate her virtues. Christ is our 
model in perfection, but Christ is God, and the task of 
imitating Him appears difficult. Well, here is Mary, a 
creature like to ourselves, may we not attempt to imitate 
her ? True, her soul is the reflex of Christ's own pure 
soul, but still we must pray to her, to obtain for us by 
her powerful intercession the ^ grace to begin, and the 
grace to persevere in imitating her. There may be some 
among you who boast of being members of her Holy 
Rosary. Some again, nay all, may say that they daily 
bear her livery, for they wear her scapular; others there 
are again who come still nearer to that fountain of holi- 
ness and style themselves her children, band themselves 
together in sodalities and call her by the name of 
Mother. To such we would say they are performing a 
good work; they are indeed followers of Mary, they in- 
deed honor her, for they testify publicly to the world the 
honor, the love and the respect they show to the Mother 
of God. But even in their midst we fear that there 
may be some who, if they ask themselves whether or not 
they are really trying to imitate the Blessed Virgin, 
must hear the answer that they have been negligent ; 
that they have been faithless, that they have wandered 
away far from their Mother; they will find that they 
have been forgetting their contract and their act of con- 
secration to the Mother of God. There will be found in 
their midst some who, during the day lose hours, who 
during the week lose days, and who during the month 
lose weeks, yet they cannot devote one-half of the even- 
ing at Mary's shrine; they are off chasing after the 
pleasures of the world or perhaps sinning. To that class 

215 



XX. SERMON. 

we would say : Courage, make another effort ; the month 
of Mary is a month of grace, and if you ask her to ob- 
tain for you the grace of conversion, the grace of again 
turning to her service, you will find that on the last night 
of this beautiful month of May when you will again call 
upon her to renew your consecration, that you will rise 
from her altar a true child prepared to follow her, pre- 
pared to imitate her in a manner that will secure your 
happiness in this world and a place of glory with Mary 
in the next. 



216 



XXI. SERMON. 
SODALITY OF THE CHILDREN OF MARY. 



11 And He went down with them, and came 

to Nazareth, and was subject to them? 

Luke ii. 51. 



You have heard the Gospel from which these few 
words are taken. When our Blessed Lord was twelve 
years old His parents took Him with them to Jerusalem. 
They were wont to go there for the celebration of the 
Paschal feast. When returning home they missed Him 
and went back to Jerusalem to seek Him, and there, 
seated in the midst of the doctors of the law, the wise 
men of the day, they found Him hearing them and ask- 
ing them questions. Mary, with all the love of a mother 
who finds a child that is lost, rejoiced, and the boy Jesus 
came away with her and went down to Nazareth and 
there remained subject to Mary, His mother, and 
Joseph, His foster-father. In a word He was obedient 
to them. By that single act Christ gave us an example 
that all are obliged to imitate ; by that single act He pro- 
claimed a principle to the world which if acted upon 
would be its salvation ; for He established the principle 
of authority and the correlative duty of submission; the 
principle that men should respect all legitimately es- 

217. 



XXI. SERMON. 

tablished authority, the very principle which in our day 
is being lost sight of and practically denied. 

We would speak to you of obedience, and in the first 
place we would ask what we mean by obedience. Obedi- 
ence is the subjection of our will to some lawfully con- 
stituted authority, it is the acknowledgment of authority 
on the one hand and submission on the other. It is an 
action testifying to the existence of law and producing 
as its effects order and harmony. It is the power which 
in time of war achieves wonders and wins victories on 
the field of battle ; it is the power which in time of peace, 
sustains nations and makes them prosperous. To-day 
the cry of the world is for liberty. Men clamor for their 
rights; the word duty is forgotten. They imagine that 
liberty and law cannot co-exist, and therefore law is trod- 
den under foot; instead of liberty they would have 
license, instead of order, anarchy. Upon nothing is this 
sad effect more apparent than on religion; for there are 
men to-day who are drawing their own conclusions re- 
specting the manner in w 7 hich they are to serve God. 
Men are wandering about in error, questioning truths 
that have been revealed since the foundation of the 
world; casting doubts upon the origin and destiny of 
man, reducing him to a mere animal and all this be- 
cause they will not admit the right of God's authority. 
Hence they wander erring, not knowing what to believe ; 
hence it is that religion to-day outside of the one true 
Church cannot present you with any fixed creed if you 
demand it, it can only offer you the opinions of men, 
ever fluctuating and changing. The principle of au- 
thority which should link and weld them together is de- 
nied, obedience has become impracticable, and unity 
impossible. But is obedience necessary in the world? 
Would w 7 e not be better without it, better without laws 
and rules that we must follow in our daily life ? Did 
our Creator ever intend that we should be bound down 
by laws? Go and question the material creation around 

218. 



SODALITY OF THE CHILDREN OF MARY. 

you; go to the heavens and ask those planets which have 
revolved for centuries why they are so orderly in their 
course. Ask of the sun why it shows itself each succeed- 
ing day to our gaze and lights up our world; ask of the 
moon whence and why it borrows the light, that makes 
of our night day, and dispels the darkness of the tomb 
from a living world; go and ask of Ocean as it tosses 
madly at your feet, why it chafes and does not overstep 
its shores; ask the earth, hard and frozen, why it re- 
laxes and gives forth life again; ask the waters thunder- 
ing from mountain precipices whose is the hand which 
drives them so hurriedly to the embrace of Ocean. Go 
ask of fire, air, earth, water, why they are subject to law, 
and they will tell you that they but serve the will of Him 
who made them; they are but subject to their Creator. 
The bulky universe and the minute star move both sub- 
ject to the laws of their being, to the laws ordained for 
them by their Creator. But man, is he to be subject to 
law ? Enter the family ; w 7 hy is it that the individuals 
who compose it remain together ? The child born into 
this world is dependent, it cannot provide for itself for 
years, it is powerless; it must be obedient to the laws of 
its being, it must cling to its parents for support and 
subsistence; thus the family is held together. Again, 
look at the numberless families growing up together and 
known as one great family under the name of Society, 
how could it last were it not for this principle of obedi- 
ence, this subjection to law? How could the state be 
held together, and how further the interests of all ? 

If you would behold the necessity of obedience and at 
the same time its power, consider that great society 
which is called the Church, whose children are scattered 
over the whole surface of the earth ! behold its immensity, 
it is not confined to any one particular country, it spreads 
the world over embracing men of different nationalities, 
men whose judgment differs in all things save the Doc- 
trine of the Church, the theologian lost in the considera- 

219 



XXI. SERMON. 

tion of the revealed world, the philosopher questioning 
God's own being and attributes, the scientist seeking for 
knowledge from the world around, examining God's 
wonders in creation, weighing the heavens and measur- 
ing the distances of the planets, carrying out the com- 
mand of God to subject the earth; men of culture rich 
in the knowledge of the world's past and casting the 
horoscope of its future; men of power remarkable for 
their keen-sightedness and quickness of comprehension ; 
all these are held together, knit together closely in the 
bonds of one faith and of one religion by Her power. 
She has stood eighteen hundred years on the battle field, 
for "never like her Divine Founder did she have respite. 
To-day persecution from without would take up arms 
against her, and her children would be compelled to lay 
down their lives for their faith or fly to distant lands ; 
but like the wind of heaven which sows the seeds of 
earth, persecution but spreads abroad the Christian name 
over the whole world. To-morrow heresy in all its forms 
would endeavor to sweep some doctrine from Her Creed; 
but like the opposition of the heated iron to the hammer 
which beats it into form, heresy but serves to bring out 
more clearly the dogmas of Catholic Faith. The world 
in its power and wealth would oppose that society and 
ask it to relax its code of morality. The sceptred mon- 
arch would demand privileges, the crowned head favors 
that could not be granted without an infringement of 
divine law ; but knowing Her mission to obey God rather 
than man, their demand was left unheeded. The bigot- 
blinded by his hate would fling ridicule upon Her, and 
the fanatic in his misguided zeal misrepresent Her to 
the world. Still majestically, queen-like, She proceeds 
upon her way, leaving in her wake empires in ruin, king- 
doms in the dust, crowns trembling and thrones totter- 
ing. Unshaken and unyielding She moves on in the 
promise of Her Divine Founder : " Behold I am with 
you all days even to the consummation of the world," 

220 



SODALITY OF THE CHILDREN OF MARY. 

How do we account for this unity, this stability in the 
midst of a world which witnesses the weakness, the dis- 
cord of all things temporal ? How account for this re- 
markable phenomenon ? By the power of Him who has 
engrafted this society upon Himself so that we are all 
real members of His body; flesh of His flesh, bone of 
His bone; after that power it is owing the acknowledg- 
ment the principle of obedience recognized and acted 
upon by Her children. This it is which draws and 
binds the Catholic masses to their clergy. This it is 
which binds the clergy to the Priesthood, to the Episco- 
pacy, and the Episcopacy to that great centre, that great 
heart which gives life-blood and strength to the millions 
of its children, the Papacy. Men of the world if asked 
the cause of this phenomenon would say that the devo- 
tion of the laity to the priest is a bigoted superstition. 
No, it is the outcome of faith in the great heart of the 
people who, after looking upon the face of their Christ 
are quick enough to recognize in the Priesthood the traits 
they have adored in Him. Men would say it is the 
growth of ignorance; but no! that it is the enlightened 
homage which millions of intellects pay willingly to the 
virtues of humility, chastity, love of learning, zeal for 
man's salvation, the spirit of labor and union with God. 
Men say it is the result of fear. No! it is but the out- 
pouring of a love which has been growing in the hearts 
of the faithful laity for eighteen centuries, fed year 
after year, as the sea by flowing rivers, by the service of 
a Priesthood whom gold could not corrupt, nor labor 
tire, nor persecution crush, nor the fear of death itself 
sever from the flocks which God had committed to their 
charge. No ! It is owing after God to the living and 
practical obedience of the children of the Church to 
their Supreme Head. Behold the power and necessity 
of obedience ; nature in her works gives that lesson, and 
man when he would live the life of a moral being must 

221 



XXI. SERMON. 

respect law and order, must become subject, must neces- 
sarily be obedient to authority. 

You may ask why we choose to speak to you on such 
a subject. Would it not be more fitting that we should 
speak to you of the Blessed Virgin, you who are the 
children of Mary, you who profess to honor her even 
more than others, would it not be more fitting that we 
should speak to you of some of her virtues and show you 
the manner of practising them ? Well, if we are not 
speaking to you of the Blessed Virgin, we are speaking 
to you in a manner that we hope will bear fruit and make 
you more ardent admirers of Mary, and closer imitators 
of her virtues, for we speak to you as to a society 
gathered together to honor publicly the Mother of God; 
to a society whose devotion is not to last for a day, for a 
week or for a month. We speak to you as to those who 
should continue their devotion to Mary for their life- 
time, and hence we speak to you of obedience. For 
being a sodality in honor of Mary you are to appear be- 
fore the world as such, and to appear as a society, as a 
body having interest in our common cause, your first 
duty is to know what constitutes and makes up the life 
and strength of every society. This is what we have 
endeavored so far to show you : that the life and strength 
of every society is obedience on the part of those who 
are its members. Having once become the member of 
any of these societies, you have a mission, the mission 
of keeping the Blessed Virgin in all her beauty and 
loveliness before the world. This is the mission which 
the Church entrusts to you when she permits you to unite 
in honor of that glorious Mother. She well understands 
that if Mary and the knowledge of Mary is to be kept 
before the world, the only possible way would be to cen- 
tralize that devotion in some institution, and hence it is 
that she allows and calls upon young men and young 
women the world over to form themselves into these so- 
cieties. But fruitless will be the effort if you do not 

299 



SODALITY OF THE CHILDREN OF MARY. 

perform your task; you are not called upon to preach 
this knowledge and love of the Blessed Virgin to the 
world publicly; you are not called upon to perform any 
great work in her honor; you are not asked to make her 
the subject of your conversation continually; you are not 
required to perform any great work in her honor; you 
are required to do but one thing, which is to practise the 
virtue of obedience; do but this and you will be faith- 
ful to your mission, you will accomplish great things. 
This silent work of yours will enlighten the hearts of 
many whom you little think. At first a desire will seize 
upon the beholder to be among your number, and on 
that desire will follow its accomplishment. Remember 
that when you entered this society it was from an act of 
choice, you were notified that it was a free act, and you 
should live up to all the laws, the rules and regulations 
that you have imposed upon yourselves. If you do this 
you will be practising the obedience we have been en- 
deavoring to inculcate, and the effect will be a mighty 
one ; it will be the result of some hundreds of souls striving 
after their own salvation, and giving edification to a 
whole parish. You cannot say that too much is de- 
manded of you, for after all, what is asked of you? You 
are not called to any great degree of perfection, you are 
but called upon to live the life of an ordinary Christian ; 
to receive Holy Communion monthly and present your- 
selves at the tribunal of Penance. These are but duties 
which the majority of Catholic souls should perform, 
and this is but the extra weight, the great burden that 
you imagine you have to carry. The only difference is, 
that you are called upon to perform these actions 
publicly, in a body, and this is the great law of your 
society which you should fully resolve to fulfill every 
month as the time comes round. If on the other hand 
you are not faithful, if you have become members and 
after a few months grow tired of this restraint, you are 
in the way, impeding the progress of your society, chill- 



XXL SERMON. 

ing its' life, freezing its activity; you are like recreant 
soldiers on the battle field/ halting when called upon to 
march. 

But are we demeaning ourselves by this life of obe- 
dience ? To answer this question we have but to ask 
ourselves what was the life of our Blessed Lord upon 
this earth. It was a life of untiring obedience ; He 
tells us that He came into this world to do the will of 
His Father who sent Him. What was His life of thirty 
years while living with Mary and Joseph ? It was the 
life of obedience. We can well fancy Him as the boy 
Jesus in the house at Nazareth, obedient to the call and 
ready to carry out the wish of His mother when once ex- 
pressed. When grown up we can imagine Him taking 
part with St. Joseph, helping him in his work shop, ren- 
dering his work light by sharing his labors. Again, dur- 
ing His public life of three years when He came forth 
to choose His Apostles, was He not carrying out and 
fulfilling the mission upon which He was sent by His 
Father of establishing His Church ? And finally when 
the moment came when He was to sacrifice Himself for 
the sins of the world in order that He might save man; 
when in the garden of Olives there started up before His 
vision the sins and iniquities of a thoughtless and wicked 
world; when every human being destined to tread this 
earth stood there shifting his sins upon the shoulders of 
the innocent Jesus, sins that made Him quail with fear 
and brought the blood in huge drops from His Sacred 
Body ; what was His cry but the cry of obedience : 
" Father, if it be possible let this chalice pass away, yet 
not My will but Thine be done." 

Take the life of the Blessed Virgin: That too was 
a life of obedience. Kneeling one day in prayer she 
was startled by a voice not of earth, and looking up she 
beheld an angel saluting her: "Hail full of grace." 
Mary is for a moment astonished, but she is told not to 
fear, that she is to be the mother of the Desired of Na- 

224 



SODALITY OF THE CHILDREN OF MARY. 

tions, that she is to be the mother of the long expected 
Son of God. The Mother of God ! What did that en- 
tail ? " That Mary should hear these words spoken by 
Simeon ; that a sword of grief her heart should pierce ; " 
that Mary should lead a life of constant suffering and 
sacrifice. It meant that Mary was to be the co-redemp- 
trix of the world, that she was to be the representative 
of the human race and that she was to suffer and feel in 
some measure the pangs that our Blessed Lord ex- 
perienced. It meant that from the very moment in 
which she would give her consent to be the mother of 
God, His sufferings and His sacrifices would be ever 
after vividly before her. Imagine her then a mother, 
bearing about in her arms that Infant Child, knowing 
and feeling day after day the sorrows that were in store 
for Him; imagine her gazing on Him for those thirty 
long years with these thoughts in her mind. Finally, 
imagine that mother of dolors- following Him through 
the different stages of His Passion, seeing Him beaten 
down to earth by the blows of His enemies, hearing the 
shouts of the mob who were thirsting for His blood. 
Imagine her hearing the echo of the hammers driving the 
nails through His sacred hands and feet, hands that have 
ever blessed and feet that have never tired running after 
the penitent. The cross is raised and the bitter agony 
of three hours begins ; the blood courses from His 
wounds, His lips grow livid, and from a breast heaving 
its life's last sigh go forth the words: "It is consum- 
mated. " Mary must stand and suffer. Where is the 
mother who would not refuse to give birth to a child 
which she knew would perish in her presence upon the 
scaffold ? Yet Mary knew all this, knew that she w y as to 
be the mother of the victim to be offered for sin, knew that 
she must suffer with Him; and yet when the angel made 
known to her that it was heaven's wish that she should 
become the Mother of God, and in consequence the 
mother of sorrow, she manifested her obedience and her 
15 225 



XXI. SERMON. 

willingness, saying : " Behold the handmaid of the 
Lord, be it done unto me according to Thy word." Where 
could we find a more perfect picture of obedience. 

We might proceed to point out the same virtues for 
you in the life of St. Joseph and we might then leave 
that happy family and show you how the saints, who 
loved and practised it, how they gained heaven as a re- 
ward for their willing service. But since we have 
pointed out this virtue in the life of her we call Mother 
we need go no farther, for the child is always willing to 
model itself after the mother. Hence we ask you 
Children of Mary to begin to sacrifice your will to what 
is right and proper, as Mary, your mother, has done be- 
fore you. As one vice alone can cause the loss of your 
immortal souls, so, too, can the practise of one single 
virtue bring about their salvation; so let us practise this 
virtue in order that we may be saved. 

When we consider the inner life of any religious com- 
munity, w T e see that all goes on orderly, each one at- 
tached to some particular work. The whole community 
acts and moves as though it were but one individual. 
When we see this the conclusion forces itself upon us 
that it must be easy for these persons to save their souls, 
for in every action they perform in virtue of their super- 
ior's order they consider it an action performed for God; 
the will of their superior is God's will. We wish to be 
like them, we would like to know what God demands of 
us. No matter what may be our station in life we can 
be like them by living up to the duties of our station in 
life. 

There are three ways whereby God makes known His 
will to us and what He would have us do. In the first 
place He gives us His Ten Commandments, command- 
ments equally binding upon all, no matter what may be 
our station in life; commandments which tell us of our 
duties to God and to our neighbor. In the second place 
His representative, the Church, to whom He has trans- 

226 



SODALITY OF THE CHILDREN OF MAHY. 

mitted His own power and authority, makes known to 
us God's will in its precepts, and these precepts are like- 
wise equally binding upon all the faithful, from the 
Pope, who is Christ's own Vicar, down to the young 
child that has just attained the use of reason. Like 
the Ten Commandments given to Moses, they admit of 
no exception; all must obey. Besides these two means 
of which God makes use, and which are common to all, 
there is also a special manner in which God chooses to 
make known His will to man. Whoever we are, or 
whoever we may be, we are always living in some partic- 
ular state of life to which God has called us, and in that 
particular state we have certain duties which we should 
be faithful in discharging. You then who are the de- 
vout clients of Mary, you who are bound by the Ten 
Commandments of God, and by the Six Precepts of the 
Church, you are likewise asked to be faithful in the per- 
formance of certain duties which you have taken upon 
yourselves in virtue of your state of life, in virtue of 
your becoming sodalists and Children of Mary. You are 
asked to be obedient to the laws of your society, to per- 
form the duties enjoined by those laws, to receive the 
Sacraments monthly, to assist at Benediction, to show 
yourselves the worthy daughters of the Queen of Angels 
and Saints. 

Performing; these few duties you will be faithful to 
your mission, you will practise that one virtue which 
will save you ; for it will be the seed of others. You will 
deserve to witness a scene in heaven like to that which 
we witness on earth this evening; not the crowning of 
Mary by her children, but of her children crowned by 
that good Mother, with a crown, the precious stones of 
which encircleth the brow of every good and faithful 
servant ; a crown of glory and of happiness which en- 
dureth forever and ever. 



227 



XXII. SERMON. 
PRAYER. 



" Be not faint-hearted in thy mind ; 
neglect not to pray." 

Eccles. vii. 



What is prayer, and what are its conditions ? 
Prayer, though men may complain and say that they can 
not pray, is not an art or a science, a task that has to be 
learned; but it is a cry of need, uttered by the creature 
when he sees his dependence upon his God. The poor 
beggar in our streets is not taught to ask for alms, to make 
known his wants to the passers by. He does not come 
before them with studied phrase, and assumed manner, 
but stands a picture of want, in tattered garments, with 
outstretched hand, trusting to the generosity of those 
who behold him. Neither should the man who prays 
come before his God with head erect, with independent 
air, as the proud Pharisee; telling Him of his virtues, 
and thanking Him that he is not like the rest of men, 
As there is nothing more disgusting to men than the 
proud beggar, so there is nothing more hateful in the 
sight of heaven than the proud suppliant. 

We then ask ourselves what are the conditions of 
prayer. In the first place we should pray with humility, 

228 



PRAYER. 

that is to say, pray with the knowledge that we are noth- 
ing, have nothing, and can promise ourselves nothing. 
That all w T e are, that all we have and will have comes 
entirely from Him who is the author of our being. 

In the second place, we should pray with confidence, 
trusting in God, trusting and believing in that infinite 
power that can do all things, realizing the fact that we 
are not asking from one whose riches can be exhausted 
or who will deal with us miserly; but on the contrary, 
that we are asking from One who is all powerful, whose 
treasures can never fail, and whose goodness endureth 
forever. 

In the third place, we should pray with perseverance, 
struggling and contending with God, knowing full well 
if He does not grant our request immediately it is either 
because He wishes to accustom us to the virtue of prayer ; 
or, like the father who will not give to his child that 
which will injure him, He sees that what we ask will 
not profit us unto the Salvation of our souls. 

Let us examine and see the effect and power of prayer. 
If our prayers be humble, be confident, be persevering, 
and if we ask for what will aid us in obtaining the sal- 
vation of our souls our prayers will be infallible in pro- 
curing for us from God's treasures whatever we seek. 
This is a startling declaration, for, how often have we 
prayed, how often have we asked for some favor, for 
health, for prosperity, the conversion of a friend, and 
the heavens seemed to be closed against us; for we did 
not receive the benefit we sought for; and yet we tell 
you prayer, with those conditions, is infallible. If we 
wished to prove the Real Presence in the Sacrament of 
the Altar we would open the revealed word of God Him- 
self, and we would find that He there promised to re- 
main with us under the appearance of bread and wine. 
Again, if we wished to establish the infallibility of 
Christ's Church upon this world in teaching mankind 
the truth, we would again appeal to the inspired Word, 

229 



XXII. SERMON. 

and we would hear Christ promising the Paraclete, the 
Spirit of Truth, who was to come and remain with that 
Church to the end of time, and preserve it from error. 
And so, too, when we would establish the infallibility of 
prayer in obtaining for us whatever we ask, we should 
turn to that inspired Word and inquire whether Christ 
ever promised to hear our prayers. If He has so prom- 
ised, He must be true to His word, and we are as certain 
of the effect of prayers as we are of the Real Presence, 
or the continuance of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of 
Truth, abiding with the Church. 

Again, if we would establish the Peal Presence upon 
our Altars, Ave might appeal to another form of proof, 
namely: That the world has believed it for ages, and 
that the children of the Church throughout every age 
have been ready to bear testimony to that truth in the 
shedding of their blood. Or, if we would establish the 
infallibility of God's Church, centuries would testify 
to the fact that despite the numerous persecutions 
through which the Church has passed and the heresies 
from which she has suffered, her doctrines are the same 
for Pope Pius and his subjects in the twentieth century 
as they were for Peter and his followers in the first. 
And so, too, if we would establish the efficacy of Prayer 
we can point to the fact that prayer has even been effica- 
cious in obtaining from God's bounty whatever was sought 
for by the humble, confident and persevering suppliant. 
Here then we have the two-fold proof that our prayers 
may always be powerful, may always obtain that which 
we ask, for Christ promises and that promise has ever, 
been fulfilled. 

Has Christ then promised to hear us when we con- 
verse with Him? Has He promised ever to lend a will- 
ing ear to our entreaties and petitions ? Let us place 
ourselves in spirit before that great Teacher, and listen 
to the words that fall from His lips while addressing the 
Disciples who press about Him on the Mount. Let us 

230 



Grayer. 

open the Gospel and seek an answer to our question; we 
will hear our Blessed Lord say to those who surround 
Him: "When you pray, you shall not be as the hypo- 
crites, who love to pray standing in the synagogue, and 
at the corners of the street, that they may be seen by 
men. Amen, I say to you they have received their re- 
ward. But thou, when thou shalt pray, enter into thy 
chamber and having -shut the door, pray to thy Father 
in secret and thy Father who seeth in secret will reward 
thee openly and will give thee whatsoever thou dost ask. 
And when you are praying, speak not as the heathens do, 
for they think they are heard for their much speaking. 
Be ye not therefore like them, for your Father sees what 
you stand in need of before you ask Him. You there- 
fore shall pray to Him in this manner : ' Our Father 
who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy Kingdom 
come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; give 
us this day our supersubstantial bread, and forgive us 
our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into 
temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.' ' 

Ask of your Heavenly Father to make v His name 
known to the uttermost limits of the earth. Ask Him 
to erect His kingdom within the hearts of men, ask that 
His will may be done upon this earth by His creatures, 
ask for your daily sustenance and for the pardon of your 
offences; ask that you may be preserved daily from all 
evil both of soul and body, and Amen I say to you, your 
Father who seeth in secret will reward you; then contin- 
uing He says ; " Ask and it shall be given you, seek 
and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you. 
For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh 
findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." 
And then, as though some doubting, were wavering as to 
whether this sacred promise would be fulfilled, He pro- 
ceeds to encourage them and to fill them with confidence 
by reminding them that God is their Father; a Father, 
and consequently interested in their welfare, one who 

231 



XXII. SERMON. 

would be ever ready and willing to gratify their just de- 
mands, one who regards them as His children who are 
to be provided for in all their necessities. " What man 
is there among you/' He says, " if his son ask for bread 
will give him a stone ; or, if he ask for a fish will he give 
him a serpent ;. and if you, then, being evil, ' being sin- 
ners and sinful/ know how to give good gifts to your 
children, how much more will your Father who is in 
heaven give good things to them who ask Him ? " And 
then having appealed to their own feelings and senti- 
ments, to the feelings and sentiments of humanity, as a 
proof that God would grant whatsoever they asked, since 
God was their Father, He goes still farther, and shows 
them with what fatherly care God in His providence 
looks after even the most minute of His creatures. " Be- 
hold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do 
they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly 
Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value 
than they ? Again, consider the lilies of the field : How 
they grow; they labor not, neither do they spin, and yet 
I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory was 
arrayed as one of these. IsTow if God so clothed the 
grass of the field which to-day is cut down and to-mor- 
row is cast into the oven, how much more you, O ye of 
little faith." Have we not now an answer to our ques- 
tion, as to whether Christ actually promised that our 
prayers would be powerful, could this power be more ex- 
plicitly stated, be more expressly given ? Time and 
again He repeats it throughout the Gospel. J^ay more 
he makes use of that solemn form which might be likened 
to an oath. " Amen, Amen, I say to you, you will re- 
ceive your reward." 

Perhaps there is a question presenting itself to the 
minds of some of you; for there may be some here pres- 
ent who have asked and have not received an answer, 
who have knelt in prayer time and again and asked for 
some particular favor; they will ask how was it that I 

232 



PRAYER. 

did not receive it? Well we have on the one hand the 
never failing promise of our Blessed Lord that our 
Father who is in heaven hears and grants our requests, 
on the other hand we know that there are times when we 
do not receive that which we ask for; but our only legiti- 
mate conclusion is that we must have asked amiss; we 
must have prayed for something that would stand in our 
way rather than aid us in gaining our salvation. We 
must have prayed without that humility, that confidence, 
and never tiring perseverance, which makes prayer effi- 
cacious; Christ Himself who is the Truth has promised 
as we have seen, promised even with an oath, that our 
prayers will be heard and our requests granted. 

Let us now turn to our second question. Examine 
into the power of prayer, examine instances of effica- 
cious prayer. Has prayer ever been heard and an- 
swered ? If we turn to Scripture we will find its every 
page testifying to its miraculous power. We will find 
the Apostles in the midst of storm, trembling with fear 
and fright, calling upon their Divine Master to awake 
and save them. In an instant the winds and sea become 
calm. We will find the sick and infirm carried to our 
Blessed Lord, and we will hear them commanded to arise 
and walk to their homes. A father will come, bathed 
in tears, and in a voice choked with sobs, ask that his 
daughter may live. He is told that his daughter liveth. 
A young woman will throw herself before Him dis- 
tracted with grief and will tell Him of the death of her 
brother, and that brother, though four days dead, will 
be restored to her. A lone widow following the remains 
of her only son will hear a voice commanding the funeral 
procession to halt, and taking the young man by the 
hand He will command him to arise, and give him up 
to his mother. The lepers driven from society on ac- 
count of their disease will stand afar off on the moun- 
tain side and call out to Jesus who is passing: " Jesus, 
son of David, have mercy on us," and immediately they 

' 233 



XXII. SERMON. 

are cleansed of their leprosy and restored to their fami- 
lies and friends. 

In fact, the whole Gospel record is the record of mira- 
cles performed through prayer; and so, too, if we glance 
over the Old Testament, we will see the miraculous power 
and effect of prayer. The prophet Elias, by prayer, 
sealed up the heavens for three years, so that no rain or 
dew fell upon the earth. Going into the town of Serap- 
tha, he prays God to restore life to the child of a widow- 
mother, and his prayer is heard. Joshua prays, and the 
laws of nature are suspended; the sun stands still in the 
heavens until he had conquered his enemies. The three 
children who had been thrown into a fiery furnace by 
Nebuchadnezzar were preserved intact through prayer. 
Prayer, rather than the sword, struck off the head of the 
impious Holofernes, and preserved Daniel when thrown 
into the den of lions. Prayer is all powerful, so power- 
ful that God cannot resist it; as we see in the case of 
Moses when he saved his people from the wrath of God 
which was about to descend upon them. Moses had as- 
cended The Mount to receive the tables of stone whereon 
the law was inscribed ; the rebellious Jews turned to their 
idols, and the Lord in His anger spoke to Moses, saying: 
" Let me alone that my wrath may be kindled against 
them and that I may destroy them." But Moses be- 
sought the Lord his God, saying: " Why, O Lord, is 
thy indignation kindled against them. IsTo, I will not 
permit you to strike them; spare them I beseech you, 
spare them lest the Egyptians may say he craftily led 
them out into the mountains that he mirfit destrov them. 
Remember Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and spare them; 
remember thy servants to whom thou sworest by thy own 
self: 'I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, 
and this whole land that I have spoken of I will give to 
your seed, and you shall possess it forever.' " And the 
Lord we are told was appeased from doing the evil which 
He had spoken against Ilis people. But if you would be- 

234 



PRAYER. 

hold a more touching example still of the power of prayer 
you will find it in the destruction of Sodom and Gomor- 
rah. God wished to destroy those cities on account of 
their lusts and impurities; but before doing so He ac- 
quainted Abraham of His intention. And Abraham 
immediately began to plead for the safety of Sodom, 
saying: " Lord, do not be angry with me, thou wilt not 
destroy the just with the wicked; if there be fifty just 
men in the city wilt thou not spare the place for the sake 
of the fifty just ; far be it from thee to slay the just with 
the wicked." And the Lord said to him: "If I find 
in Sodom fifty just within the city, I will spare the 
whole place for their sake." And Abraham answered 
and said : " Seeing I have once begun I will speak to 
my Lord, whereas I am dust and ashes. What if there 
be five less than fifty just persons, wilt thou for five and 
forty destroy the whole city ? " and He said : " I will 
not destroy it if I find five and forty." And again 
Abraham said to Him : " But if forty be found what 
wilt thou do ? " He said : " I will not destroy it for 
the sake of forty." " Lord," said Abraham, " be not 
angry if I speak ; what if thirty shall be found there ? " 
He answered : " I will not do it if I find thirty there." 
"What if twenty-five be there?" He said: "I will 
not destroy for the sake of twenty." For the last time 
Abraham spoke and said : " I beseech thee be not angry 
Lord if I speak once more: What if ten shall be 
found there ? " and He said : " I will not destroy it for 
the sake of ten." And that wicked city, through the 
prayers of Abraham, would have been saved could there 
have been found but ten just souls within it. 

But what need have we for reciting all the examples 
that the Scripture offers ? Have we not the testimony of 
six thousand years. Never has a day gone by since man 
was formed and placed upon this earth but he prostrated 
himself before God. Nations and individuals alike bear 
testimony to the power of prayer. The savage in his 

235 



XXII. SERMON. 

forest home, and the civilized man in the heart of a large 
city, both alike bow down and adore. Prayer has been the 
cry of all nations and of all people who are scattered 
abroad upon the world. Must it not then be powerful 
since the world still clings to it after a period of sixty 
centuries ? Can we not each one of us testify to the 
power of prayer in our lives ? Ask the religious, shut 
up in his quiet cell, how it is that he has overcome the 
world and its pleasures; how it is that he can thus bury 
himself alive within that living grave, and he will tell 
you that it is the effect of prayer to, and contemplation 
of, his God. Go ask within the Sanctuary how that man 
standing and offering up the Sacrifice of the Mass was 
raised to that high station of sharing in the Priesthood 
of Christ, and he will tell you that it is again the effect 
of prayer offered day after day, week after week, and 
year after year. Perhaps from his very youth he has 
been asking God to call him to that high state ; now he 
stands before you the Priest, scarcely knowing how 
difficulties have been set aside or overcome; scarcely 
knowing how he has gained that summit. He can but 
say to you : I desired that office ; I prayed for it, and 
told my God in my prayers that He had promised that 
if we would but ask it would be granted; and therefore 
I asked for this office as a means of saving my soul, and 
God heard that petition and granted that request. 

Again, ask the man whom you may have known as 
the slave of some vice, ask him how he overcame that 
habit of sin; he will tell you that on a certain day and 
at . a certain hour I entered into myself, saw my weak- 
ness, felt how powerless I was if God did not aid me, 
and therefore I called upon Him and resolved to lead a 
different life, and asked for the help and assistance of 
His Grace. Since then I have been a free man, freed 
from passions w T hich would have enslaved me. Ask 
even the man who does not make use of prayer as a 
means of overcoming temptation, ask him the power of 

236 



PRAYER. 

prayer and he must needs admit it. That man goes to 
confession, some detestable vice has a hold upon him, 
weighs him down so that he feels he cannot free himself 
from it; his confession made, he is given a means of 
overcoming that particular temptation, perhaps some 
small prayer, a mere ejaculation, the sacred names of 
Jesus, Mary and Joseph. He goes forth fully deter- 
mined to use that prayer, the temptation comes, the for- 
bidden pleasure presents itself to his imagination; the 
prayer, too, comes to mind; he fears to use it, he feels 
that it would have the effect of saving him, but no, he 
chooses to fall into the old sin again. Is this an ex- 
aggerated picture ? Is it not true that we sometimes, 
fear prayer, lest we play the coward as the world holds, 
when we wish to commit some forbidden action. 

Let me extort you then, since Christ has promised to 
hear our prayers, and since we have seen and now under- 
stand in some manner the power of prayer ; let me ex- 
hort you to pray devoutly and fervently. Make known 
your necessities humbly, confidently, perseveringly, and 
rest assured God will listen to your requests and grant 
whatever you may stand in need of. Pray and ask un- 
ceasingly for the gift of perseverance, that you may not 
waver; pray for friends and relatives, for sinners, pray 
in all your troubles and in all your necessities, and rest 
assured that since God has pledged Himself to hear us, 
our prayers will not go unanswered. 



237 



XXIII. SERMON. 
MARY, OUR LIFE, OUR SWEETNESS AND OUR HOPE. 



44 Hail Holy Queen, Our Life, Our Sweetness and Our Hope" 



The beautiful titles which the Church applies to the 
Blessed Virgin astonish us. We glance over her Litany 
and there we see epithets that we feel should be applied 
to God alone. We hear her styled the Mother of Divine 
Grace, the Cause of our Joy, the Refuge of Sinners, the 
Help of Christians, the highest among Hierarchy of 
Heaven. These salutations of praise we know to be the 
expressions of a heart filled with love; they are the ex- 
pressions and outpourings of the great heart of the 
Church, and we feel that it has all but styled her our 
God, and hence we are amazed. And hence it is no doubt 
that those who differ from us in religion think that we 
actually make of her a goddess, and give unto her the 
worship that is due to God alone. But upon reflection we 
find that all these terms of love and praise may be show- 
ered upon the Mother of God without derogating in the 
least from God's honor. We find that we may apply to 
her those strong expressions made use of in the HAIL 
HOLY QUEEN, " OUR LIFE, OUR SWEETNESS 
AND OUR HOPE," 

238 



MARY, OUR LIFE, OUR SWEETNESS AND OUR HOPE. 

They belong primarily to God, they belong in a peculiar 
manner to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And if we 
would realize this, we have but to ask ourselves what 
would this world be without Jesus Christ, Who is by ex- 
cellence, our life, our consolation, and our hope. Erase 
His name, blot it out from the hearts of men and this life 
of ours is death ! For what is our life ? Man's life upon 
this earth is not a mere animal life, it is not to eat, sleep 
and drink; they are but attributes of the animal part of 
man. Endowed with reason and intelligence as he is, his 
life is something more, it is something intellectual ; and to 
live an intellectual life he must have truth. 

His intelligence, whether he wills it or not, will propose 
questions to him which must be answered. They will be : 
whence he came and whither he is going; why he is here. 
And if these questions cannot be answered satisfactorily, 
life is a failure ; it would be better for him if he did not 
exist. But, once answer these questions which his mind 
naturally proposes to him, and he has the key of life, then 
he understands its mysteries, and becomes an intellectual 
being. 

But where shall he find their solution ? Who will give 
him the answer to them ? If he asks the wise ones of the 
world they differ and contradict one another. Leaving 
Christ out of view and consulting the world's past, man 
will find all manner of solutions offered, he will find the 
mind darkened, doubt upon every side, and his life an 
enigma that cannot be solved, but let in the light of Christ 
into his mind, let him speak and let His doctrines and 
teachings be accepted, and life is no longer a maze but a 
wonderful reality; it is no longer animal, intellectual 
merely, but something more : it is supernatural. He will 
learn that he has come from the hand of God, that he is 
going back from this land of exile and separation to his 
Father, and that that Father is doing all He can to aid 
and assist him through this dangerous and perilous 
journey of life. 

239 



XXIII. SERMON. 

Again, erase the name of Jesus Christ and where is the 
consolation and sweetness of life? Would life be worth 
living without Him ? Would it not be miserable and filled 
with bitterness ? Look abroad over the world and 
see the millions of men who are toiling from early morn- 
ing till late evening, endeavoring to eke out a miserable 
existence for themselves and their families in the midst 
of poverty. Do we wonder at the communistic ideas 
which are expressed % Would we wonder if we found 
poverty and wealth continually warring one with another, 
would we wonder if order and law were destroyed and 
anarchy held full sway ? But again, let in the light of 
Christ's life into the world, let Him, the God-man, appear; 
let Him embrace a life of toil, be born in poverty, and have 
not a place whereon He might place His head, and imme- 
diately the poverty and misery which would have thrown 
the world into a state of disorder is condemned. It is 
content with its conditions, nay, more, men born to wealth 
will quit their possessions and take the life of poverty 
upon themselves, feeling that it has been blessed by the 
God-man Who embraced it when He said : " Blessed are 
the poor for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven." Blot out 
that name of Jesus Christ and what a bitter world this 
would be. Picture death taking from us our friends, 
those who gave us life, those whom w T e held most dear 
upon this earth. Let us be told that they are dead, that 
they are to remain a mere clod of earth shut up in a grave ; 
that once passing from our sight they are gone forever. 
Who could portray the bitterness of heart which would 
have to be endured by us upon this earth. But again, let 
in the light of Christ's wonders upon the world ; let us hear 
Him, the God-man, proclaim that He is the Resurrection 
and the Life, that all who believe in Him, though they be 
dead, shall live, and all shall arise and live forever in hap- 
piness. Let us picture Him while upon this earth, step- 
ping to the bier upon which the corpse is borne out for 
burial, and let us behold Him standing at the side of the 

240 



MARY, OUR LIFE, OUR SWEETNESS AND OUR HOPE. 

grave and calling back the dead to life; let us finally see 
Him rising from the dead Himself, and we cry out : " Oh 
grave, where is thy victory ! Oh death, where is thy 
sting ? " The grave is robbed of its horrors, and death 
comes to us as something to be desired ; for it is the pass- 
age from this life with its cares and anxieties to a life 
which knows but joy and perfect happiness. 

Once more let us blot out the name of Jesus Christ from 
the world, and what becomes of the virtue of hope, hope 
which lights up this world for us, changes the storm into 
sunshine, and even in our darkest hours rises like the moon 
in the calm quiet heavens, and tints our little troubles with 
its own peaceful light. What becomes of it? It is ban- 
ished from the world, and we move about in a living grave 
wondering at our very existence. Groping about even as 
men would grope about if the sun were snatched from the 
heavens, all light, all life, all strength and beauty would 
be extinguished ; we would wander about as in a labyrinth 
without being able to extricate ourselves, we would feel 
our passions warring w T ith our better nature. To-day they 
would be our idols, and to-morrow we would endeavor to 
destroy them ; one moment they would be our master and 
we would be ruled by them, while in the next we would 
hate them, and sorrow that they so governed us. We 
would regard life as a ceaseless warfare, only to find rest 
in the darkness of the tomb. 

But again, let the light of Jesus Christ into the world, 
let us hear the consoling truth that this life is but a trial, 
and that a reward awaits the struggle beyond the grave, 
if only we prove ourselves victorious. Let us learn that 
these passions of ours are but the outgrowth of the first 
sin of disobedience against God, that man rebelled against 
God, and that revolt brought with it the rebellion of man's 
passions. Let us learn that He, the God-Man, will die 
for us, let us see the bold figure of the Cross, with Christ 
hanging upon it, with our passions nailed to it; let us 
learn that He is purchasing for us the world which we 
16 241 



XXIII. SERMON. 

had lost, that He will found a Church which is to bring 
light to the world, that within that Church He Himself 
will remain to strengthen us by His grace and by His Sac- 
raments, let us be told that in our last hour when we are 
stretched upon a bed of sickness, and life is fast ebbing 
from us; let us be told that* He our God will be brought 
to us, that we may receive Him, may become one with 
Him, and this world, with all its faults, with all its fail- 
ings, will be a paradise, will be a foretaste of heaven com- 
pared to the world without the saving name of Jesus 
Christ. He then is our Life, our Strength and our Hope, 
He is indeed the Way, the Truth and the Life. 

But you will ask me what has all this to do with the 
Blessed Virgin; how is she our Life, our Sweetness and 
our Hope. She is so by participation with Christ; the 
nearer a man approaches the perfection of Christ the more 
Christlike he becomes ; the nearer the saint approaches in 
his life, the life of Christ, the greater saint he becomes. 
We call him a saint who has put on the holiness of Jesus 
Christ, w r e style him holy; neither does the glory of God 
suffer by styling those holy who strive and endeavor to 
become like Him; on the contrary, becoming like God in 
His perfections we naturally apply to him the epithets we 
apply to God. We call him just, while acknowledging 
God to be justice itself. We call him holy, while ac- 
knowledging God to be holiness itself. We style him 
pure of heart, though acknowledging God to be purity 
itself. And so it is with the Blessed Virgin; she shares 
in the perfections of Jesus Christ, she is more Christlike 
than all others; besides and in consequence thereof she 
shares in all His beautiful titles of honor. Consider the 
Mother and Son, how like they are ; the perfections which 
are to be met with in Jesus Christ are to be met with in 
Mary also. As God possesses all perfections by nature, 
Mary as His mother possesses all her perfections through 
Him and by grace. Jesus is the fountain, the origo et 
fons. Mary is the receptacle, the vessel_which_took_that 

242 



MARY, OUR LIFE, OUR SWEETNESS AND OUR HOPE. 

grace into her heart, in order that she might diffuse it 
among Christians, for as Richard of St. Victor says: 
" The Holy Virgin begot grace itself, nay the fountain 
of all grace." 

Jesus is omnipotence itself and Mary possesses almost 
unlimited power, since all things, even God Himself, bend 
to her will; for whatever she could desire, as St. Anselra 
tells us : " He will be very condescending and disposed 
to hear." ]STo one is more Christlike than Mary, and 
therefore no one can lay claim to a participation in His 
titles of honor more than Mary. She is His faithful 
image. On this earth the life of the Redeemer might be 
summed up by saying that He was the most humble, the 
most charitable, self-sacrificing, simply because His hu- 
mility was the humility of a God, His charity the love 
of God, His self-sacrifice the sacrifice of a God. So like- 
wise of Mary ; we may say that her humility was the hu- 
mility of the Mother of God, her charity the love of the 
Mother of God, her self-sacrifice the self-sacrifice of the 
Mother of God. 

One and the same spirit animates those holy hearts, one 
and the same love binds them to us. Theirs was one and 
the same holy life. Hence it is that the Church may style 
Him our King, our Teacher and our Lord, while it may 
call Mary our Queen and our Lady. Hence it is that we 
may style Jesus our Advocate, for we have an advocate 
with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Just ; Mary also is our 
advocate with Jesus. Hence it is that we may style Jesus 
the way to heaven, and Mary the gate of heaven. Hence 
it is in a word that we may sum up all and call Him our 
Father, while we address Mary as our Mother. She mod- 
eled herself upon all the perfections of God through His 
grace. She is our Life, our Sweetness and our Hope, for 
she is the Mother of Him who bringeth life, consolation 
and hope to the world. Let me then exhort you to be 
devout children of Mary, to show your love for Mary pub- 
Jicly_and before the world. 

243 



XXIII. SERMON. 

Come to her you who have been forgetting your devo- 
tion to the Mother of God. Come back to her and begin 
anew your devotion in her honor. Come to her you who 
are cast down in sin, for remember that she is the mother 
of life, the mother of Divine Grace ; come to her you who 
may be troubled by the adversities of life, you who may 
have lost some dear friend in death; come to her, for re- 
member she is the healer of our miseries, she is the sweet- 
ness of our life; come to her you who despair, who feel 
that God has abandoned you on account of your unfaith- 
fulness ; come to her, for remember she is our hope ; come 
all to her, for she is a mother to us all, and has for us all a 
mother's love. Above all things else let me induce you 
one and all to have some devotion, some daily devotion to 
the Mother of God, and if I recommend one let it be 
that of her Holy Rosary. Reserve some niche, some 
corner in your homes for her statue, and in the evening 
gather about it, with your beads, in family prayer. 

Some of you no doubt, now advanced in years, can re- 
member a good father or a good mother collecting the 
members of the family in evening prayer before some 
little shrine of Mary. They have passed away, good 
pious souls and devout children of the Blessed Virgin, 
but perhaps their good example is lost or but seldom im- 
itated. This should not be. If there is any one pleasant 
reminiscence they have left behind them it should be this, 
and if there is any wish of theirs which you know they 
would have you respect, it is that you, like them, should 
continue the good w 7 ork in the midst of your families. 
Renew then your devotion to Mary, purchase a chaplet of 
beads, and let it be your constant companion. Carry it 
about with you, and recite it daily. I know full well that 
it is regarded by some as the companion of the ignorant, 
that it is meant only for pious souls who cannot read. 
This is not the intention of the Church, it is meant for 
all her children, from the Pope to the most ignorant child 
in her ranks. It is not intended only for the ignorant; 

244 



MARY, OUR LIFE, OUR SWEETNESS AND OUR HOPE. 

else why should she hang that chaplet of the Virgin from 
the belt of Missionaries and Sisters, and ask them to re- 
cite it daily. It is one of the Church's devotions to Mary, 
it is if you will the devotion of the poor, of Christ's poor ; 
but it should be the devotion of all. 

If we who use our nicely covered books with gilded 
clasps, if we were examined and asked what lessons of 
piety and devotion we took from those books that the poor 
of Christ could not find in the beads, we are afraid manv 
would be startled and would hear that strong saying of 
one of the Fathers of the Church ringing in their ears : 
Surgunt indocti et rapiunt regnum Dei, dum nos cum 
Uteris Nostris mergimur in profundum. They would be 
judged with the Pharisee in the Temple rather than with 
the Publican. 

Pray to her then, call her by the sweet name of our 
Life, our Sweetness and our Hope. Tell her that as ban- 
ished children of Eve we call upon her to turn her merci- 
ful eyes upon us, as we journey through this vale of tears, 
and entreat that when our exile is over, she may show 
unto us the blessed fruit of her womb, our Lord Jesus 
Christ. 



245 



XXIV. SERMON. 
PRAYER. 



" Let us go therefore to the throne 

of grace, that we may obtain mercy." 

Heb. iv. 16. 



When we read this Gospel and close the volume which 
contains it, two things come most forcibly before us when 
we ponder upon its meaning. The first is, the littleness 
of man; the second, the greatness of God. Man turning 
the powers of his soul in upon himself and considering 
what he really is in the sight of heaven, must conclude 
that he is indeed powerless ; he sees that he is entirely de- 
pendent upon some other being, unable to do anything of 
himself. He realizes that the life which he enjoys, the 
strength of body, and the power of soul which he possesses 
are in the hands of another. Freely he obtained and 
freely can they be taken from him again; he begins to 
plan and speculate, talks of the future as though it were 
the present, speaks of what he will do, speaks as the man 
in the Gospel, of pulling down and of building up and 
presently a voice is heard saying : " Thou fool this night 
will I demand thy life of thee." To-day he appears 
strong and powerful, robust and healthy, and on the mor- 
row we find him beaten down by disease, brought in the 
short space of a few hours to the very verge of the grave, 
incurable, fading as the grass, and as the leaf that spring- 

246 



PRAYER. / ■ < 

eth out on a green tree, in a word utterly powerless. Con- 
templating God we find Him all powerful, subsisting of 
Himself, dependent upon no other. He but spsaks and 
the world appears with its myriad wonders starting into 
life. He speaks, and man the only being capable of 
knowing and of loving Him stands before Him, wholly 
conscious of his dependence upon that Supreme Being. 
Again He speaks, and this time reveals Himself to man in 
the mystery of the Incarnation; and in this Gospel we 
find Him telling us how powerful in every word and deed 
He is. Though without the wealth of the world, and de- 
spised by men, He tells His chosen followers that He is 
all powerful, tells them to ask for any thing in His name 
and they will receive it. He speaks indeed as the Mon- 
arch and as the King of Creation, for never was man be- 
fore heard to say that he could give whatever was asked 
of him. Never before did sage, or king, or conqueror 
dare to say : " Ask for anything and you shall receive 
it." King Assuerus in all his power, when Esther, his 
wife, wished to offer her petition, could but say : " What 
is thy petition, Esther, that it may be granted thee ; and 
what wilt thou have done ? Although thou ask the half 
of my kingdom thou shalt have it." Christ alone could 
say: " Ask and you shall receive." And in that declara- 
tion we recognize His supreme power, we recognize a great- 
ness which is infinite, a greatness which can bestow upon 
man the object of his desires; whether it be power, or 
glory, or riches, or even the kingdom of God, eternal life. 
The two things in this Gospel which arrest our attention 
are: The littleness of man and the greatness of God, 
which lead us to the conclusion that prayer is necessary 
for us, that we must have recourse to God. 

We will propose a few question to ourselves on prayer. 
We will ask what prayer is. How are we to pray in order 
that our prayers may be efficacious, and finally we will ask 
how it is that our prayers are not always heard ; for often 
we pray and ask favors jfrom God that are never granted 

247 



XXIV. SERMON. 

to us. What then is prayer? We hear people say that 
they cannot pray. One would imagine that God had en- 
joined a duty that man could not fulfill; they cannot pray, 
they do not know what prayer is. It is not an art nor a 
science that they must study to acquire ; it is not a lesson 
that they must learn, but it is simply the acknowledg- 
ment of our dependence upon God. Look upon the 
poverty-stricken who pass by you on the streets, who come 
knocking at your door soliciting alms, who meet you on 
the public thoroughfares with outstretched hands; ask 
them who taught them to beg. Go through the hospital 
wards in any city and view the patients tossing on their 
beds of pain, and watch their countenances; though not 
a word is spoken, how beseechingly do they look at you as 
though they asked: Can you do aught to ease my pain, 
to afford me relief in my suffering? Who teaches them 
how to pray ? Who teaches them to look at you so im- 
ploringly as you pass by them ? Again, behold the man of 
the forest wild ; he stands at the foot of a lofty mountain 
peak, he sees the blinding lightning dart across the 
heavens, he hears the deafening thunder rolling overhead 
and reverberating through the hills, feels that danger is 
near and calls upon the mighty power that rules the storm 
to spare him. It is the cry of necessity, the cry for assist- 
ance ; it is a prayer. Who has taught that savage ? Take 
up the Inspired Word and you will there read of the poor 
publican coming into the temple; he stands at the door, 
strikes his breast and says : " Lord be merciful to me a 
sinner." That man goes down to his home justified by 
the mercy of God which he had implored. A leper comes 
down from the mountain, and casting himself before our 
Blessed Lord, says : " Lord, if thou wilt thou canst 
make me clean ; " and Jesus stretching forth His hand 
touched him, saying: "I will. Be thou made clean." 
The Centurion came to Him telling Him that his servant 
lieth at home sick of the palsy and is grievously tormented, 
and Jesus makes answer, saying : " I will come and heal 

218 



PRAYER. 

him." Two blind men sitting by the wayside hear that 
Jesus is passing by, and cry out : " Lord, Son of David, 
have mercy on us ; " and Jesus, having compassion on 
them, touches their eyes, and they see. Who taught these 
to pray ? Their words and phrases are not studied, but 
in their cry for help, and for assistance there is a serious- 
ness, a faith, a confidence most astonishing. 

Prayer then, is not a difficult task, it is but a devout 
conversation with God. It is the soul coming before God 
and telling Him of its wants, representing to Him its 
weakness, discovering to Him its temptations, begging 
pardon for its coldness and unfaithfulness ; it is the soul 
conversing with Him who is the Lord and Master of all 
things. Yet how coldly, how carelessly do we speak to 
Him at times. If one of earth's great sovereigns were ex- 
pected to visit us, how we would prepare for his coming; 
or if we had obtained permission to have an audience with 
one of the rulers of this world, how gratefully would we 
carry ourselves in his presence. Highly honored indeed 
would we consider ourselves; and while in his presence 
how attentive to his every word, how careful in our ex- 
pressions, how watchful over our every action would we 
be. Yet when we go before God morning and evening, 
as we should do, with what an air of indifference and with 
what an air of coldness do we kneel before Him, " our 
words fly heavenward, our thoughts remain below." We 
make use of a set form of prayer, we repeat the words 
hurriedly, never thinking of their meaning, and before 
we are aware of it, we have finished and we scarcely know 
what we have been saying, what we have been asking for. 
How are we to account for this ? How is it that we arise 
from our knees feeling that we have performed that duty. 
How can we correct this fault and pray without distrac- 
tion, and converse with God devoutly and attentively. 
There is but one thing to do, we must prepare ourselves 
for prayer. If we were going to do any very particular 
work we would not rush into it hurriedly, we would first 

249 



XXIV. SERMON. 

prepare ourselves for it, think how we would best accom- 
plish it. If we were going to visit some person of rank, 
we would while on the way no doubt be occupied in pre- 
paring what we should say and how we should say it. In 
the same manner when saying our prayers we ought to 
prepare ourselves, think of Him to whom we are going to 
appeal, to Him who is Lord and Master of creation, to 
Him who holds this world in the hollow of His hand, to 
Him who holds our lives in His power, what are we going 
to say to Him ; we are going to make use of the very 
prayer which He Himself has taught us, the Our Father. 
We are going to make use of that other prayer which was 
addressed to the Blessed Virgin by the Angel Gabriel, by 
St. Elizabeth and the Church: Hail Mary. We are go- 
ing to make our profession of faith, telling Almighty God 
that we believe in the divinity of His Divine Son and in 
the truths of the Church. We are going to acknowledge 
most humbly before God and His Saints that we are sin- 
ners, and sinners through our own fault, and we are going 
to pray to Him to have mercy on us, and to grant us 
pardon and absolution for all our offences through the 
merits of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Do but this 
before you begin to pray. Let those few thoughts be in 
your mind and your words will form that attentive and 
devout conversation with God which constitute prayer. 

But how are we to pray? What conditions are neces- 
sary for prayer in order that it may be efficacious ? In 
the first place we are to pray with humility. God loves 
truth and if there be any truth on this world known to 
us more than another, it is that we have nothing that we 
can call our own, and that we continually stand in need 
of the divine assistance; from this acknowledgment it 
follows as a consequence that we should be humble, that 
we should appreciate and fully understand our real posi- 
tion, that we are really nothing, and that we have nothing 
except what we are, and what we have in the sight of God. 
This knowledge of ourselves constitutes the essence of hu- 

250 



PRAYER. 

mility and it is with this proper conception of ourselves 
we must come before God if we expect to be heard by 
Him. Come before Him as the poor man before the 
wealthy one, saying to Him : " My Lord, behold my 
poverty, I hunger and thirst after your graces, I am de- 
void of virtue, I have gone to creatures and asked them 
to nourish my soul, and they have answered me that they 
could not, that but One alone was great and could do all 
things for me." If we go with these sentiments to our 
knees our prayers will infallibly obtain whatever we may 
ask, for it is written : " The prayer of him that hum- 
bleth himself shall pierce the clouds." " He hath regard 
to the prayer of the humble, and hath not despised their 
petition," " He resisteth the proud and giveth His grace 
to the humble." Go before Him with the sentiments of 
the woman of Chanaan. You remember her humble 
prayer. St. Matthew tells us that when our Blessed Lord 
came to the confines of Tyre and Sidon, a woman of Cha- 
naan followed Him, crying out : " Have mercy on me, 
O Lord, thou Son of David ; my daughter is grievously 
tormented by a devil." Lie heard her calling after Him, 
but took no notice, answering her not a word. The 
Disciples were troubled by her cries and asked Him to 
send her away, and thus keep her from crying out after 
them in the street. Jesus turning to her said : " I was 
not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Is- 
rael." As though He would say I have nothing to do 
with you, since you are not an Israelite. This was a 
strong rebuke to the poor woman, but she did not seem 
to heed it; on the contrary we read that she worshipped 
Him, saying: "Lord, help me." And then turning to 
her again He said : " It is not good to take the bread of 
the children and cast it to the dogs." This was severe, 
it was even insulting if you w r ill ; but still the good woman 
in her humility admitted that though she was not of Is- 
rael, of the chosen people of God, if she could not eat 
at the Master's table she mi^ht be permitted to partake 

251 



XXIV. SERMON. 

of the crumbs that fell from it ; so she answered : " Yea, 
Lord; for the dogs also eat of the crumbs that fall from 
the table of their master." Her humble prayer had 
pierced the clouds of heaven, it had pierced the tender 
heart of Jesus, and she heard these words falling from 
His lips : " O woman, great is thy faith ; be it done unto 
thee as thou wilt," and her daughter w T as cured from that 
hour. 

How far different is our prayer. She was a Pagan, 
and though a Pagan she prayed with humility. We are 
Christians, born in the full knowledge and light of revel- 
ation, knowing our littleness and our dependence; yet 
how do w T e pray? With pride in our hearts, we pray as 
though God were bound to hear us, we ask for graces and 
favors not as suppliants, but as masters who can com- 
mand. If we receive our demands we never acknowledge 
them ; if they be refused, we murmur and complain ; com- 
plain as though God w T ere obliged to give us whatever we 
choose to ask of Him. Then again our appearance in 
prayer; what is it do you think? Is it that of an hum- 
ble suppliant who resigns himself wholly and entirely to 
the will of heaven ? Consider the ostentation we betray 
even in the house of God, the look of pride we bear about 
with us, the affected position we assume when praying, 
the critical eyes that we are casting about on our neigh- 
bors. Is all this, think you, the exterior of a soul thor- 
oughly understanding its position before God? Such a 
soul is naturally disappointed after its prayers are put 
up with mock humility to heaven. 

In the second place we must pray with a lively faith 
and confidence. We know and fully understand that noth- 
ing transpires in this world without God's knowledge ; and 
as He knows, likewise has He power to dispose of things 
as He wills; hence when we come before Him we should 
come as St. James tells us, " asking with faith, nothing 
wavering, for he that wavereth is like a w 7 ave of the sea 
that is moved and carried about by the wind. Therefore 

252 



PRAYER. 

let not that man think that he shall receive anything of 
the Lord." We should come before Him with full confi- 
dence, feeling that He is all powerful and can grant us 
whatever He will. We are not asking of one whose power 
is limited, nor from one whose treasures will fail ; we are 
asking from one who can do all things, from one who 
possesses all things. Neither are we asking from one 
w T ho will deal with us miserly; but from one who is rich 
in mercies, from Him who in His mercy gave us Himself. 
All this should inspire us with confidence, and that con- 
fidence will obtain for us whatever we ask. It is a 
strange fact which will strike us when reading the prayers 
of those who besought Jesus to cure them; that He al- 
most invariably attributed the effect of their prayers, not 
to His own goodness or His mercy, but to their faith and 
confidence in Him. Thus in the instance of the woman 
of Chanaan, of which we have just told you ; He tells her 
that He has not found such faith as hers in Israel, and 
adds therefore : " Be it done unto thee as thou wilt." 
It is a primary condition that He seeks for before work- 
ing any of His miracles, and we have an example of it 
in the case of the death of Lazarus. 

Jesus comes to the house of Martha and Mary, the 
sisters of Lazarus, and Martha hearing He was coming 
goes out to meet Him; but Mary sat at home. Martha 
said to Jesus: " Lord, if Thou hadst been here my 
brother had not died, but I know that whatsoever Thou 
wilt ask of God, God will give Thee." Jesus said to her: 
" Thy brother shall rise again." Martha answered : " I 
know 7 that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the 
last day." Jesus saith to her : " I am the Resurrection 
and the Life ; he that believeth in Me although he be dead 
yet shall he live; and every one that liveth and believeth 
in Me shall not die forever. Believest thou this ? " She 
said to Him : " Yea, Lord ; I have believed that Thou 
art Christ the Son of the living God who art come into 
the world; " and when she said these things, Jesus raised 

253 



XXIV. SERMON. 

Lazarus from the dead. Again, we read of a certain wo- 
man who had been troubled with an issue of blood for 
twelve years, and the inspired writer, St. Luke, tells us 
that she had bestowed all her substance upon physicians 
and could not be helped by any. She came behind Jesus 
and touched the hem of His garment and immediately the 
issue of blood stopped, and Jesus saith: " Who is it that 
touched Me ? " and when all denied, Peter and they that 
were with him said : " Master, the multitudes throng 
around Thee, and Thou sayest l who touched Me ? ? And 
Jesus saith : " Somebody touched me, for I know that 
virtue is gone out from Me." The woman seeing that 
she was discovered came trembling and fell down before 
His feet, declared before all the people for what cause 
she had touched Him, and how she was immediately 
healed ; but He said to her : " Daughter, go in peace ; thy 
faith hath made thee whole." Oh ! What faith and 
what confidence did the people have in the power of 
our Blessed Lord ; how different from us who come before 
Him like Peter upon the waves, half doubting, half be- 
lieving, calling upon Llim for help, yet scarcely be- 
lieving that He will hear our prayer. We call upon Him 
when all other means fail us, when we have tried the 
world, tried its power and strength; then and only then 
do we call upon Him who has promised to hear us and 
grant us all our requirements. Is it any wonder then 
that our prayers are not heard, confiding and trusting in 
God, as we do, only when men say they can do nothing 
for us. 

The third great condition by which we make our pray- 
ers efficacious is perseverance. That is to say, we must 
sometimes struggle and contend with God, so to speak, in 
order that Ave may obtain His favors. He is the Master 
of them and dispenses them when He chooses, as the man 
of wealth asked for alms, may be asked time and again 
before He may see fit to grant them. Besides, God has 
His own wise ends in view in delaying the favors that 

254 



PRAYER. * . ~ 

we ask of Him; it may be that He so delays in order 
that we may be led to appreciate them the more; or it 
may be that He wishes to accustom us to a life of prayer, 
for He Himself tells us that we must always pray. It 
is our armor in times of temptation and trials, it is the 
mysterious ladder of Jacob upon which the angels ascend 
bearing our requests, and descend bringing to our souls the 
gifts of God. It is the key of all graces, and hence be- 
cause it is so necessary to our salvation, God would ac- 
custom us to lead a life of prayer, to ask and ask Him 
time and again for the favors we crave of Him. If you 
renounce this habit of prayer, you give up the assistance 
of God, you trust to your own weakness, and may expect 
to fall a prey to your own passions and bad inclinations ; 
faith will then be extinguished, hope will die, and charity, 
that virtue which should bind you to God in bonds of 
love, will be destroyed. It is from this we learn the 
necessity of perseverance in prayer, that God actually con- 
fers the greatest favor upon us when He does not imme- 
diately hear our prayers. He is teaching us to pray, He 
is teaching us that saving habit of always praying. Well 
did the woman of the Gospel understand this condition 
of prayer when she sought the cure of her daughter. 
Though our Blessed Lord had told her that He had not 
come but for the house of Israel she persisted and even 
when He went so far as to insult her, as we might say, 
she still persisted in her prayer and thus obtained what 
she asked of Him. 

In St. IMark we read of a blind man named Bartimeus 
who was sitting by the wayside begging, and hearing a 
great crowd passing he inquired the cause of it, and was 
told that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. He imme- 
diately began to cry out : " Jesus, Son of David, have 
mercy on me." And many who were by rebuked him, 
telling him to be quiet and to hold his peace. But he 
only cried the louder : " Son of David have mercy on 
me." And Jesus stood still and commanded him to be 

255 



XXIV. SERMON. 

called, and they said to the blind man : " Be of better 
comfort ; arise, He calleth thee." And Jesus said to him : 
" What wilt thou that I should do to thee ? " And the 
blind man answered : " Rabboni, that I may see." And 
immediately the blind man saw. Here was the reward 
of humility, faith and perseverance in prayer. Men told 
him to be quiet, to cease praying, that Jesus was paying 
no attention, told him as we are often told, to cease pray- 
ing for a certain favor or blessing, that God will not hear 
us; but the blind man cries the louder, whereas we give 
up praying perhaps at the very moment when it might 
be pleasing to God to grant us our request. 

But how is it that we pray and our prayers are never 
heard, granting even that we pray with all these condi- 
tions ? Why is it that our prayers are not heard ? Christ 
Himself says if you shall ask the Father anything in my 
name He will give it to you. St. Augustine discoursing 
on this text of Scripture says : " Observe that this word 
anything, by which our Saviour lets us understand that 
we ask in His name, shall be something and something 
worthy of Him, because on the other supposition it would 
be improper for Him to exert His power for us." As 
often then as we ask for favors prejudicial to our salva- 
tion, or useless for our salvation, we cannot expect to be 
heard. Christ came to confer upon us all the benefits of 
salvation ; hence when we pray for anything which aids 
and assists us in obtaining that end, we have every reason 
to expect that our supplications will be heard and our re- 
quests acceded to. We pray for health of body to rise 
from our sick beds, to regain our strength. Why do we 
pray thus ? Do we ever halt in our prayers to ask that 
question ? Why do we pray for all this ? Is it that we 
may spend the remainder of our days in God's service; 
or is it that we may begin to take pleasure in amusements 
dangerous to our salvation? What is the real reason of 
our prayer ? Is it not that we may act just as we did 
before taken down with our sickness? If so, think you 

256 



PRAYER. 

that God would hear your prayer ? We pray for things 
temporal; riches, position in life, honors, favors for our 
families, we pray for all these, and at the time they may 
be refused us. We never once ask ourselves the motive; 
perhaps if we did we would find that our prayers are 
but the result of an ungovernable ambition, an ambition 
that seeks happiness in the present without for a moment 
reverting to the future; an ambition that aspires to the 
possession of this world's goods, but never looks beyond 
the limit of earth. We pray to attain some particular sta- 
tion in life, pray to God perhaps for the grace of devoting 
our years to His service in some religious community; 
we have prayed for years but the grace has not been ac- 
corded us, we wonder w T hy it is that God will not grant us 
a favor so likely to obtain our salvation ; but if we acted 
thoughtfully our wonder would be only that of a child 
who discovers that if its father had given it all that it 
asked and cried for, it would long since have been dead. 
God alone knows what to give us. To ask, that is the 
condition, though we may sometimes ask amiss. And 
when we do ask jfor any gift we should always beseech 
God to grant us our request provided it be conformable 
to His will and conducive to our salvation. 

Let me then exhort you to pray fervently and devoutly ; 
this is necessary, for we can do nothing of ourselves; it 
is not difficult when understood rightly. But above all 
things when we pray, let us pray with humility, recog- 
nizing and acknowledging before God what we really are, 
trusting with confidence to God as a child to its father ; 
with perseverance, contracting the habit of prayer, and 
finally pray in conformity to His will, knowing well that 
He but wishes the salvation of our souls and all that leads 
to it. Praying in this manner we may hope to be heard, 
and we may hope to work out our salvation and spend the 
everlasting years of the future world in conversation with 
God. 

Mi 257 



XXV. SERMON. 
THE PRECEPTS OF THE CHURCH. 



" To hear Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation." 



All the faithful of Christ's Church are obliged under 
pain of mortal sin to hear Mass on Sundays and Holydays 
of Obligation. Before entering into an explanation of 
this Precept it would be well for us to ask the question 
whether or not the Church has the right and the power 
to make laws which bind our consciences ; for if that ques- 
tion be not answered in the affirmative we are not obliged 
to obey, but on the other hand if the answer be that the 
Church has power to impose them upon her children w r e, 
as faithful children of that Church, must be obedient to 
them. 

Has then the Church any legislative power? In order 
to answer this we need only consider the fact that the 
Church is a society, and as in every society there must 
be some in whose hands the power of making laws are so 
placed that order and harmony may be preserved, like- 
wise in the Church, which is a society or congregation of 
all the faithful, there must be some person or persons 
clothed with authority for framing the laws which are 
necessary for the good government of the general body. 
This truth is so simple that it scarcely needs elucidation. 
We all know what a scene would be presented by a family 
be it ever so small, if it had no head, Therefore, if we 

258 



THE PRECEPTS DF THE CHURCH. 

pass to the consideration of society at large what dread- 
ful anarchy would prevail if men were allowed to act as 
they choose; society could not exist; hence the necessity 
of law. And if law be necessary, so then is the legislator 
or law-maker equally necessary. All will immediately 
grant this axiom as far as civil society is concerned. It 
is the only way to preserve society, to keep men together, 
to bring order out of chaos. If then this apply to civil 
society, it must likewise hold good for the Church which 
also is a society; a society of minds and hearts, a society 
of men with one common interest; the salvation of their 
immortal souls. Therefore in order that they may be 
bound together and made to work in unison for that com- 
mon end, law and a legislator or law-maker is necessary. 
That power must reside in the Church. Without appeal- 
ing to the Scriptures at all; humanly speaking, the 
Church must have laws regulating the actions of her mem- 
bers in all that tends to their common object. 

But if we appeal to the Scriptures we shall find this 
power of making laws given to the Apostles and their 
successors. After the resurrection we read in the Gospel 
of St. John that Christ appeared in the midst of His 
Apostles and Disciples and said to them : " All power 
is given to Me in Heaven and on earth, as the Father hath 
sent Me, also do I send you ; go therefore and teach all 
nations." Now, no man will say that Christ had not the 
power of making laws for those who were to be His fol- 
lowers ; for He tells us Himself that God had given Him 
all power and sent Him into the world to teach the truth. 
And we hear Him delegating that same power to the 
Apostles and their successors in the ministry. Again we 
read in St. Matthew where Christ says : " If thy brother 
offend thee go and reprove him between him and thee 
alone; if he shall hear thee thou shalt gain thy brother; 
and if he will not hear thee, take with thee one or two 
more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every 
word may stand." And if he will not hear them, what 

259 



XXV. SERMON. 

is to be done ? " Tell the Church ; " and if he will not 
hear the Church ; what then ? " Let him be to thee as the 
heathen and publican." If he will not hear the Church 
which is the highest court, if he will not hear her lav/, then 
let him alone even as you do the heathen and the unbe- 
liever, for : " Amen I say to you, whatsoever you shall 
bind upon earth shall be bound also in Heaven, and what- 
soever you loose upon earth shall be loosed also in 
Heaven." As though He would say: when you bind the 
conscience upon earth, it shall likewise be bound before 
God who is in Heaven ; and when you shall loose it, that is 
not bind it, it shall be loosed ; that is, not bound before God 
who is in Heaven. Again we read in the Gospel of St. 
Luke : " He that heareth you heareth Me ; and he that 
despiseth you despiseth Me. And he that despiseth Me, 
despiseth Him that sent Me." If we take up the acts of 
the Apostles and the Epistles of St. Paul, we shall find 
this truth preached by Christ, and acted upon by the 
Apostles. Thus in the Acts we read that St. Paul in his 
discourse to the ancients of the Church of Ephesus, when 
he was taking his leave, said to them : " Take heed to 
yourselves, and to all the flock wherein the Holy Ghost 
hath placed you Bishops to rule the Church of God which 
He hath purchased with His own blood. I know that in 
time ravening wolves will enter in among you not sparing 
the flock." Therefore he tells the Bishops to be mind- 
ful of their duty, to beware, and rule their Church care- 
fully; that Church w T hich Christ has purchased with His 
blood. Again; we read that this same Apostle St. Paul 
went through Syria and Celicia, confirming the Churches 
and commanding them to keep the precepts, the precepts, 
mind you, of the Apostles and the Ancients. Again in 
writing to the Hebrews he tells them : " Obey your pre- 
lates and be subject to them." Eor they watch as being 
to render an account of your souls, that they may do this 
with joy and not with grief; for this is not expedient for 
you. 

260 



THE PRECEPTS OF THE CHURCH. 

From all this, my friends, we see that the Church really 
has the power of ruling over us, of making laws for us; 
nay more, we might go on and show that she ever exer- 
cised that power and that her children have ever admitted 
it. Listen to the defiance which St. Basil one of her Bish- 
ops hurls at the Prefect Modestus in the early days of the 
Church. It was in the time of heresy when the Arians 
had broached their impious doctrine and the Bishops were 
called upon to allow the Arians to come into her commu- 
nion. The Bishop Basil is sent for by the Prefect Mo- 
destus, who asks that Bishop to yield to the Emperor's re- 
quest. Basil refusing, he threatens him, asks him if he 
can be really so mad as to resist the imperial will before 
which the whole world bows. " Do you not dread the in- 
dignation of the Emperor ? Has he not power to deprive 
you of your goods, to banish you, to take away your life ? " 
" Such threats move me not," said Basil calmly, " he who 
hath nothing to lose need not dread confiscation of goods ; 
you cannot exile me for the whole earth is my home; as 
for death I do not fear it, it would be the greatest kind- 
ness you could do me. Long years have I been dead to 
the life that now is ; torments cannot harm me, my body 
is so weak and so frail, that one blow would end my life 
and my sufferings together. It was the first time that the 
courtly Modestus had ever heard such words, and he said : 
" Never before has any one dared to address me with 
such freedom." And Basil quietly answered : " Perhaps 
Modestus never before measured his strength with a 
Christian Bishop." Now what does this example show? 
It proves to us as many others might do, that men acted 
upon the truth that in the Church there was a power 
which claimed obedience, no matter how great, or what 
was, the power that attempted to gainsay it. We might 
cite another instance that of Sir Thomas Moore, the illus- 
trious Chancellor of England. He is asked by his king 
to assert the king's supremacy in spiritual matters over 
the supremacy of the Pope. They try to win him over 

261 



XXV. SERMON. 

by kindness and favor, but the God-fearing man is not 
to be induced to betray his conscience. They then throw 
him into prison and endeavor to extort from him by pun- 
ishment what kindness could not obtain. His friends 
argue with him, tell him that he should not be so obsti- 
nate, that the whole English Parliament obeyed, and that 
therefore he should likewise, since he stood one against so 
many. The Chancellor replied : " It is true you have 
the English Parliament, but I have the Christian world 
with me, and therefore cannot assent to the declaration. 

Again, in France we cite the celebrated Fenelon, the 
Archbishop of Cambray. He writes a book, and in that 
book are found propositions dangerous to faith. His case 
is brought to Rome, and the propositions are condemned. 
Fenelon, that most learned of Bishops of the French 
Church, is the first to condemn his own work. These 
were men who fully understood the truth of which the 
Church, the representative of Christ in this world, is 
the guardian, that when she spoke her words were the 
words of Christ and consequently must be followed. 
They were men who fully understood the words of Christ : 
" He who hears you hears ]\Ie, and he who despiseth M6 
despiseth Him who sent Me." They were men who fully 
understood the words : " If he w 7 ill not hear the Church, 
let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican." 

Our duty then, is to find out what the laws of the 
Church are which we are bound under pain of mortal sin 
to follow, and once knowing our duty, to act like men 
having right upon our side and do what her Command- 
ments enjoin. Noav the Church enjoins Six Precepts 
upon the faithful, the first of which is as I have said : To 
hear Mass on Sundays and Holydays of Obligation. It 
is therefore our duty to assist at Mass on Sundays in the 
first place, and secondly to assist at Mass on Holydays of 
Obligation. K"ow with regard to these two classes, there 
are Holydays of Obligation, and Holydays of Devotion. 
There are six days Holydavs of Obligation in the year 

262 



THE PRECEPTS OF THE CHURCH. 

on which we are bound to hear Mass. These are : Christ- 
mas, Circumcision (or ]N"ew Year's Day), Ascension, As- 
sumption, Immaculate Conception and the Feast of All 
Saints. These are days upon which we are bound to hear 
Mass. Holydays of Devotion are days such as Ash 
Wednesday, the Feast of Corpus Christi, or the Feast of 
the Holy Name ; they are days upon which it is well to 
assist at Mass, but still anyone staying away would not 
be guilty of a mortal sin. It is well to bear all this in 
mind so that in your confession you may not accuse your- 
selves of having missed Mass upon Holydays when per- 
haps you were not obliged to assist. Here then is the 
law: To assist at Mass on all the Sundays of the year, 
and upon these six Holydays of Obligation that we have 
just mentioned to you. But besides assisting at Mass we 
are to abstain from all servile work if it can be done. In 
this country where we are mixed up with so many who 
differ from us in religious belief it is more difficult to do 
this than in a country where all are of one faith, and 
therefore the Church is more lenient in this matter, es- 
pecially where Catholics are engaged and working for 
those who are of a different faith. If in that case Catho- 
lics cannot abstain from work on Holydays, if their em- 
ployers will not permit them, then the Church, like a kind 
mother, indulges them ; but they are to hear Mass if it can 
be done before going to work. There are times and cir- 
cumstances in which we are excused from hearing Mass, 
and Theologians tell us of two cases, on Sundavs and 
Holydays when we are not obliged to be present at Mass. 
We may be, they say, either physically or morally im- 
peded. Physically, as for instance, when we are so sick 
that it would be dangerous for us to venture out ; morally, 
as for instance, when a member of the family is sick, 
and it is our duty to remain home to provide for his 
wants. 

When we do assist at Mass we should in the first place 
be present at the entire Mass. To omit what is called a 

263 



XXV. SERMON. 

notable part of the Mass, which is generally thought to 
be a third part of it, without any reason and voluntarily, 
is to be guilty of disobeying the Precept. For instance, 
those who are not to Mass before that part known as the 
Offertory, do not fulfill the Precept of hearing Mass, and 
if they can, must assist at another Mass. Or again, if 
a person were to come in time and leave the Church before 
the Consecration, that person would not have fulfilled the 
obligation and would be obliged to wait for another Mass 
if there was one to be said. We must if possible be pres- 
ent at the entire Mass. It is only giving to God a small 
portion of the time which He has given to us; He has 
given us life, strength, health, and He requires us to re- 
turn as it were some of that time to Him on Sunday by 
presenting ourselves in the Church for one-half or three- 
quarters of an hour at the most. Surely our time must 
be very precious if we cannot offer Him so much of it 
weekly. 

In the second place we must be morally present, that is 
to say: we must be in a position where we can either see 
or hear the Priest, or at least we must be so connected 
with those who assist at Mass as to be able to tell from 
their kneeling or rising what part of the Mass is going on. 
And here we think we might call your attention to the 
fact that there is no need of standing outside in the porch 
and on the gallery stairs. When you assist your place 
is in the Church where you can see or hear what is going 
on; there is plenty of room in the different aisles for 
those who cannot be accommodated with seats. By assist- 
ing at Mass in this manner you will see what is going on, 
and your mind will be less distracted ; whereas people 
standing in the lobby and on the stairs may come Sunday 
after Sunday, and when a Holyday or Fast Day is given 
out they will know nothing at all about it. 

Besides being present at the entire Mass and being what 
is called morally present, you are supposed to assist with 
recollection and attention. Corporal presence is not suffi- 

264 



THE PRECEPTS OF THE CHURCH. 

cient, it will not do for us to come and sit in our seats 01* 
kneel on our benches as though we did not know what was 
going on; our actions and manners should bespeak the 
greatness of the work we are engaged in. When at Mass 
we are doing the highest possible work of adoration and 
praise that is offered to God; consequently w r e should ap- 
pear like persons who believe that truth. We are being 
present at the Sacrifice that was offered for us on Calvary ; 
the only difference is that upon Calvary Jesus Christ was 
offered in a visible manner, whereas upon our Altar He is 
offered in a mysterious and invisible manner. If we had 
been on Calvary when that Sacrifice was offered for the 
first time, surely we would not have been so inattentive, 
so cold, so indifferent as persons sometimes are in Church. 
They come, and they come without prayer book or without 
beads, the whole time of Mass goes by, and they have 
scarcely realized where they have been or what they have 
been doing. They stand, they kneel, and they sit down 
with others ; but they go through all that like so many 
figures, without a particle of reflection. Hence then to 
assist at Mass with understanding, if you can read, bring 
your prayer book with you, and endeavor to follow the 
priest through the different parts of the Mass. If you 
cannot, bring your prayer beads, and as you recite them 
call to mind the different mysteries of our Lord's bitter 
Passion which are being then celebrated. By doing this 
your time will be well spent, and you will share in that 
fruit of the Mass which is especially given to those who 
assist at it with respect and devotion. Act like persons 
who believe that Jesus Christ is actually present upon the 
Altar, and say to Him what you would have said had you 
been present on that Good Friday which saw Him hanging 
upon the Cross. 

But where should we assist at Mass and at what Mass 
should we assist ? We need scarcely tell you that as the 
Priest is bound to preach and instruct his people, so are 
his people obliged to hear him at times; consequently in 

265 



XXV. SERMON. 

a parish such as this where an instruction cannot be given 
at every Mass, you are obliged to be present at times when 
a sermon is preached; either in the morning at the High 
Mass or in the evening at Vespers. If we do not hear 
the word of God explained, and if we do not understand 
its application with regard to ourselves, there is every 
danger that in time we will forget the lessons of our youth 
and grow careless in our religious duties. We may come 
to Mass, but we will scarcely ever be found at Confession 
or Communion, for the simple reason that we are not re- 
minded of our duties. No doubt there are some who hear 
sermons and perhaps do not receive the Sacraments as 
often as they should ; but we must remember that the word 
of God is like seed; as Christ Himself says, it sometimes 
falls upon good ground when it takes root and brings forth 
a hundred fold, but it likewise falls at times upon stony 
ground, upon hearts that cannot be moved or swayed by 
anything save worldly gain or worldly profit. It was 
by preaching that the Apostles converted the world; it is 
by preaching the word of God that zealous missionaries 
add to the Church every day, some soul which has been 
born out of the faith and in the shadow of death. It is 
by preaching that souls grown careless and lukewarm are 
aroused to a sense of their duty and made practical Chris- 
tians. How many by hearing some simple remark, 
dropped during the course of an instruction, have changed 
their lives and become fervent Christians. There are 
some who come to Mass on Sunday morning, go home and 
devote the rest of the morning to running over the injus- 
tices, crimes and sins of a week published in some daily 
or weekly paper. If they are not engaged in this, it will 
be the latest sensational novel, or one of the monthly ga- 
zettes with its tales of love and nonsense. To such the 
word of God is tiresome, but the word of man most en- 
joyable. 

The place where you should assist at Mass is in your 
own parish, whenever possible, for many reasons. In 

266 



THE PRECEPTS OF THE CHURCH. 

the first place your Priest should know you; he is ap- 
pointed to watch over your spiritual interests, and this 
he cannot do unless you fall under his observation. 
In the second place, you should hear Mass in your own 
Church because sometimes your pastor may have to 
speak to you of matters which relate to the parish itself, 
which you as members of the parish should be interested 
in. Again, there may be announcements to be made, an- 
nouncements of Fast Days or of Holydays of Obliga- 
tion; and if you be in a Church where you cannot un- 
derstand these announcements, there is danger that the 
Holydays will pass by without your hearing Mass, or 
the Fast Days without your observing them. Finally 
there are other reasons which might be given, sufficient 
to show your duty in this regard. Try then to live up 
to the spirit of this the first of the Church's Precepts: 
To hear Mass on Sundays and Holydays of Obligation, 
unless legitimately excused. To assist at the entire Mass, 
to be present not only in body but in mind; to come at 
times to hear the Word of God explained, and to confine 
yourselves as much as possible to your own parish Church ; 
by acting in this way you will show yourselves true chil- 
dren of the Church ever ready and ever willing to carry 
out her advice and counsel. 



267 



XXVI. SERMON. 

SINS OPPOSED TO FAITH. 



" Be thou faithful unto death, and I will 

give unto thee a crown of life" 

Rev. ii. 10. 



Consider the vices opposed to the virtue of Faith, 
they are three-fold: In the first place we have the vice 
of infidelity, the infidel opposed to the Christian, the 
unbeliever in conflict with the believer. An infidel is 
one who is not baptized and who has not Faith, of whom 
Christ says : " He that doth not believe and is not bap- 
tized shall be condemned." He is one who has heard of 
the truths of Jesus Christ,but gives no heed to them, and 
therefore shall be condemned. Such a man is intention- 
ally and willfully an infidel and therefore cannot expect 
Salvation, for he despises the means which God has 
given to him and which if used would successfully con- 
duct him in this life to that better and happier world 
beyond the grave. Then we have the man who has 
never heard of Jesus Christ, who has never heard of 
His truths, never had the opportunity of making him- 
self acquainted with them. Such a man is likewise an 
infidel but not intentionally so, and therefore in God's 
justice and mercy will not be dealt with as the former; 
he will be judged according to the lights which are given 
him. As St. Paul tells us, he bears within himself the 
law which Almighty God has inscribed upon the hearts 

268 



SINS OPPOSED TO FAITH. 

of all men, and if his life be conformable to that law, if 
he seeks to do all things to please God, and is prepared to 
do that which He would ask of him, that man may expect 
salvation through God's infinite mercy. 

The second sin opposed to this virtue of Faith is that 
of heresy. Now in order to properly understand the 
nature of this sin and its effects, we must go back to the 
institution of the Christian Religion under the New Dis- 
pensation. All who admit that the second Divine Per- 
son of the Blessed Trinity became man and appeared 
upon this world, admit at the same time that he must 
have had some object in < view in thus acting. Even if 
Christ Himself did not tell His intention in being made 
man we would naturally infer that He had some import- 
ant mission to perform; and considering the state of the 
world at the time of His coming, that men- were idola- 
ters, worshipping the creatures of their hands, setting up 
gods of their own fashioning in their temples, idolizing 
vice and sin; seeing men of the highest intelligence 
wandering about and groping in darkness, knowing but 
little, and uncertain of their first beginning and last 
end; seeing all this, we would consider that He came to 
rescue mankind from their errors, to establish a new era 
of things, to promulgate the true relation between God 
and man, to establish a Religion which was to last not 
only for His particular time and place ; but was to en- 
dure for all time ; and which was to be spread abroad 
throughout the whole world. This Christ says Himself 
in numberless places in the Inspired Word; open it, and 
you hear Him proclaiming that He is " the Way, the 
Truth and the Life ; " open it again and you will see Him 
choosing men, setting them apart, instructing them, tell- 
ing of His assistance even after He shall have died and 
disappeared from the world; promising them that no 
matter what opposition is brought to bear against them, 
they will surmount it, even though it be the opposition 
of hell itself. Again open it, and you will read of a 

269 



XXVI. SERMON. 

sheepfold of chosen souls which He has gathered to- 
gether; yet He is not unmindful of those who are with- 
out. He will pray for them that they, too, may be 
brought into that one fold. Again you will hear Him 
speaking of His Church as a light that is not hidden, but 
as a city placed upon the mountain top, visible to all 
mankind. If then He is the Way, the Truth and the 
Life, men must follow Him and embrace His truths. 
If these truths have been left in the keeping of a teach- 
ing body of men to whom He promised the assistance of 
the Holy Spirit in order that they may be preserved from 
error, then we must become acquainted with that teach- 
ing which embraces all the truths proposed by them as 
coming from Christ Himself. If there be but one sheep- 
fold, we must enter it. If there be a light set up in the 
world we must not close our eyes to it. If His Church 
be as the city placed upon the summit of a mountain, m 
we must be numbered among its inhabitants if we would 
be saved; for we know that there is no salvation other 
than through Jesus Christ Himself. 

Now who is the Heretic ? The Heretic, the man who 
is guilty of the sin of heresy before God, is the man who 
hears Christ proclaiming that He is the Way and yet 
will not follow Him ; that He is the Truth, and yet will 
not embrace that Truth ; that He is the Life and yet will 
not seek Him. He is the man who fully understands 
that Christ has established a teaching body of men upon 
this earth, to whom He has promised the assistance of 
the Holy Spirit to guide and assist them, and yet he will 
not receive their teachings as the teachings of Christ 
Himself. He is the man who wishes to select and choose 
doctrines for himself, who believes that Christ is God, 
yet makes use of his own private judgment to determine 
whether or not Christ actually taught this or that partic- 
ular doctrine. He is the man whose principles if car- 
ried out by all men would destroy the religion of God 
entirely, and in its place would set up the religion of 

270 



SINS OPPOSED TO FAITH. 

man, the religion of the creature. Each individual as- 
sumes and arrogates to himself the right to say what 
truths God has left us, and we have as many opinions on 
the matter as there are individuals. To-day, if left to 
my own private judgment I may conclude that there is 
a hell where the wicked are punished for all eternity; 
to-morrow I may conclude there is a hell, but that its 
punishment is not eternal, whereas on the following day 
my conviction may be that there is no such a place, and 
as with this truth so with all others ; my ideas of religion 
will be like the fleeting clouds, as the Apostle says, driven 
here and there by every change of wind. 

The third sin opposed to the virtue of Faith is to doubt 
respecting any article of faith. We are certain of all 
the articles of our belief for we have God's own words 
for them; they may be above our comprehension, and 
are for that reason the truths of another and higher 
world, but are nevertheless true since we have God's own 
words for them, who is truth itself, and who cannot de- 
ceive nor be deceived. If then we doubt any of these 
truths proposed for our belief, we doubt the word of God 
Himself, we question His Word, make of Him a liar as 
it were, and consequently sin against the virtue of Faith, 
which is belief in God's Holy Word. But we must know 
that we do not sin every time a doubt comes into our 
minds. There are various kinds of doubts. There are 
times when thoughts wander across our mind and we feel 
disturbed; these thoughts come to the mind without any 
reason; we do not know whence they come, we have not 
exposed ourselves in any way; we have no reason, or at 
least, none is then present in our minds, and yet the 
thought will occur again and again. In such cases we have 
but to treat such thoughts with contempt, for they are but 
the effects of imagination, or suggestions of the devil ; con- 
sequently they are to be rejected. Then at other times 
we have doubts which are accompanied with false but 
specious reasons, which make an impression on our minds. 

271 



XXVI. SERMON. 

In this case we must be very careful to rid ourselves of 
them as soon as possible, not to permit our mind to rest 
upon them, for by so doing we would only involve ourselves 
in greater difficulties. We must remember that the truths 
of faith are above the power of human reason, otherwise 
they would not be truths of Faith. We are certain from 
God's own revelation that they are true, although we do 
not and cannot comprehend them ; consequently if we begin 
to examine them in detail to satisfy our difficulties through 
our reason, we shall never be able to come to any conclusion. 
There are times when these difficulties arise in the mind 
because men are not sufficiently instructed in that which 
their holy religion teaches. In this case they should seek 
for proper instruction by reading good books which treat 
of and explain the particular doctrine in question, and if 
this cannot be done then they should seek instruction from 
their Priests, from their Confessors, by making known to 
them their want of knowledge. In all these cases and 
others such as these, when thoughts of unbelief cross the 
mind, we should be careful never to yield to them; we 
should be still more careful in expressing them to others 
who can afford us no help ; careful about expressions such 
as are sometimes uttered in the presence of children, as 
who knows whether there is a heaven? Who knows 
whether there is a hell ? Who knows which is the true re- 
ligion ? By yielding to such doubts, by expressing them 
seriously, we are calling God's own words in question ; for 
by doubting them, we grant that they are uncertain and 
that therefore God in revealing them to us is deceiving us ; 
we are doing an injury to the attribute of truthfulness 
found in God. We are telling Him: Though you, my 
Lord and my God, have said that heaven and earth shall 
pass away but your word shall not pass away; still we do 
not believe you. 

But perhaps you are asking yourselves, why it is that 
we are speaking to you about these different sins that are 
committed against the virtue of faith. You are not iu- 

272 



SINS OPPOSED TO FAITH. 

fidels, you are persons who are full of faith, lovers of your 
religion, your souls have been washed in the waters of 
baptism, you have been born again of water and of the 
Holy Ghost, you believe, and are baptized, and therefore 
hope for salvation. You are not Heretics, you believe the 
whole teaching of the Church without exception, you be- 
lieve its every doctrine; you do not exercise your private 
judgment in matters of faith, you are fully conscious that 
Christ has established a Church in this world which is 
to teach all truth to the end of time, and you are members 
of that Church. Why therefore do we speak to you of In- 
fidelity and of Heresy ? You do not doubt any of the arti- 
cles of faith proposed to your belief, though you do not 
comprehend them, nor do we ; yet we believe them for they 
have been revealed to us by God Himself; and we as His 
creatures subject our intelligence and our will to them; 
we are like the glorious Apostle Peter, believing all that 
Christ has said, and though we do not comprehend nor 
understand His teaching, the mysteries, the hidden truths 
that He has proposed to us, still we cry out with Peter 
" Lord, whither shall we go ? We know that Thou art 
Christ the Son of the Living God, and that therefore Thou 
hast the words of eternal life." Why then do we speak 
to you of these sins against Faith ? For the very simple 
reason that we are living in a country and in an age 
wherein Ave meet with persons and occasions dangerous to 
our faith. We are living in a country that is not Catholic, 
but one-sixth of whose inhabitants are of our faith and of 
our religion. We are living in an atmosphere that is 
vitiated, among people whose ideas respecting religion are 
fluctuating. We are a people into whose hands papers and 
books are daily thrust that convey with them loose notions 
respecting religion. We are living in an age that is idoliz- 
ing and setting up as leaders of thought men who have no 
fixed religious principles or convictions; we are living in 
an age in which we may look in vain for Catholic govern- 
ments. Italy w 7 hich was once the centre of Catholicity, 
18 273 



XXVI. SERMON. 

to-day is not Catholic. France, styled the eldest daughter 
of the Church, is not Catholic. England, once the defen- 
der of the faith, is not Catholic ; and Germany, the legacy 
of St. Boniface, is to-day in her government the armed 
enemy of Catholicity. Living then as we do in the midst 
of danger, it is well to be warned of it ; that we may per- 
form the mission that Catholics of to-day should fully 
realize ; we are the members of Christ's mystical body, and 
as He said to the world that He was the Way, the Truth 
and the Life, so should our lives be such as to show to the 
world that the Church, His representative, is the Way, 
that except through Pier, men cannot embrace the Truth 
which they must embrace if they would share in the im- 
mortal Life of the next world. We must realize that we 
are the inhabitants of that city seated upon the summit of 
the mountain, and that therefore our lives must be a light 
to the world; we must show to the world that we have a 
religion and that we are living up to all that it requires 
of us. Thus we shall be shielded from the contagion that 
surrounds us, and then like the fathers of old who went 
into the desert and showed by their lives that their religion 
was not a mockery but a reality, we will reconvert the 
world. In those days of Paganism men saw the thousands 
who changed deserts into cities in endeavoring to live up 
to the tenets of Gospel, they looked on and said : " These 
are certainly wonderful, earnest men, whose religion is a 
reality, w 7 e have our gods, but we would never die for them. 
We have our gods, but through them we could never be 
induced to lead such lives of mortification. It is a reality 
that has forced these men from vice, it is a reality for 
which they are struggling/' and the lives of these men, 
their earnestness and their devotion to their religion over- 
threw the idols of Paganism and made the world Christian. 
There is another reason why we speak to you of the sins 
of Infidelity and of Heresy. We speak for the benefit 
and the instruction of parents, too many of whom are allow- 
ing their children, nav forcing them, into occasions that 

274 



SINS OPPOSED TO FAITH. 

tend to weaken and destroy their faith. To-day parents 
have the very laudable desire of wishing their children 
when they arrive at a certain age to enter what they call 
society, good society; and they are right. Fathers and 
mothers should wish and endeavor to have their children 
form good associations; but are there not times when 
parents err in their judgment of fit society for their chil- 
dren ? By that word society do they not too often mean 
wealth, do they not too often mean that their children are 
to associate with people of means ? Do they ever take into 
consideration the religion of such associates ? Is it not too 
true that in the name of society they allow their children 
to associate with people of no religious creed or profes- 
sion ? What is the consequence ? Being brought up in 
this manner, by daily contact with individuals of no reli- 
gion, in time the faith of your children is weakened ; they 
take up the false idea that they must work for a position 
in life and soon you will meet them on the highway of 
life, young men and young women who are very liberal 
in their religious notions, who would just as soon be found 
in one of the modern revival meetings as at a two weeks 
mission in their own Church. Wealth is not society, fash- 
ion is not society; by good society we mean those who rec- 
ognize that they have duties with regard to God and their 
neighbor, and who endeavor to perforin these duties de- 
spite the opinions and censure of men. 

Another danger into which parents thrust their children 
is sending them to schools where no word is said about re- 
ligion. If there were any well founded reasons for send- 
ing their children to such places they might be excused. 
If a reason be asked they have none to offer. They can- 
not say that our teachers are inferior. It is difficult to 
imagine what their reasons are ; stranger still, when Sun- 
day comes we cannot find their children in our Sunday 
schools, you can only find them when instruction is being 
given for Confirmation and first Communion. If you ask 
them why they are not present, they can say nothing ex- 

275 



XXVI. SERMON . 

cept that their fathers and mothers will not permit them 
to come. There was a time, and that not many generations 
ago, when our forefathers preferred to remain ignorant 
rather than to take the dangerous education which was 
offered them. They saw that their religion was en- 
dangered ; that was sufficient ; and they preferred to meet 
on the hill sides or in the open fields or wherever a teacher 
or a priest could give them a few hours of instruction, than 
barter their faith for secular education. You will say 
we do not anticipate any danger, we do not see any harm 
in sending our children to such schools. Against this we 
array the judgment of the Church, the judgment of men 
appointed by God to be our teachers who tell us that the 
faith of your children is thereby placed in danger. We 
array against you the intelligence of every country. Take 
England and you will find the battle of education raging 
and you will find the mind of the country upon the 
side of Christian Catholic education. Of Germany the 
same may be said ; and in our own country we might array 
against you the judgment of your Bishops, the judgment 
of your Catholic editors, nay more the judgment of many 
fair-minded, right-thinking men who differ from us in 
religion. Is the judgment of these men worth nothing? 
Think you they are fighting merely for an idea, or is it 
because they have seen the many sad consequences which 
follow such a system ? Rest assured that there must be 
some reason for the warnings which they give us ; they do 
not sound the alarm and cry danger unless there really is 
danger, therefore our duty is to listen and to obey ; to see 
that our children are removed from the danger, to place 
them where they will be instructed in the truths and mys- 
teries of their religion ; where the beauty of their faith will 
be shown them, and where they will learn to love and what 
is more to practise it. In doing this you will not be en- 
dangering their faith, you will be doing all that you can 
to cherish it, and in cherishing it you will likewise cherish 
the hope of one day meeting them in heaven. 

276 



XXVII. SERMON. 
THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE. 



u I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and 
whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound also in 
heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be 
loosed also in heaven." 

Math. xvi. 18. 



Why did Christ come upon this world? Was it not 
that man might believe in Him? Was it not that men 
might believe in His teachings and act upon them ? For 
if He were God then truly should He be listened to, then 
should men take hold of the great truths He came to re- 
veal. Then should all, despite all difficulties, investigate 
those doctrines, convince themselves of their truth, and im- 
mediately strive to make their lives conformable to them. 
But where are these heaven-sent truths, these God-given 
doctrines to be found ? Some eighteen hundred years have 
passed since Christ walked with us in the flesh, His voice 
we no longer hear, His Apostles, like all men, have passed 
from earth; there remain none who have seen Him, none 
who have beheld Him as He moved on this earth, none who 
can give testimony of Him, none who can tell us what His 
living words were as they fell from His lips. Are there 
then none who can tell us the great truths that He spoke 
to the world ? If there be none such, if there be no wit- 
nesses, if these truths are lost, or if they be, what every 
man left to his own individual resources supposes them to 

277 



XXVII. SERMON. 

be from his own private reading of the written word found 
in the Scriptures, then indeed we must conclude and assert, 
that which we shrink from doing; that Christ but ill-ful- 
filled His mission of teaching truth to all mankind, and 
that He has left the World in a darkness more Egyptian 
than when He appeared. But no ! Thank God, that doc- 
trine is still preserved. God alone could conceive the plan, 
and the finger of God alone could mark out the manner in 
which these truths were to descend from age to age and 
from man to man, even to the consummation of ages. The 
spirit of truth was to be the witness until the end of time, 
and that spirit of truth, the Paraclete, was to be the guard- 
ian, the teacher ; the abiding spirit which was to direct and 
move the body of Apostles appointed by Christ to teach the 
world, not during their life time only, not during three or 
four or five centuries, but on through ages, on down through 
the whole period of time ; till earth would be no more and 
man would have attained the great end for which God 
created him. 

The individuals composing and making up the body 
were to die, but the soul of it, the Paraclete, was to remain 
still teaching and preaching through the world. The Apos- 
tles would disappear, but their office would endure, and 
the spirit of truth still remaining would shed light upon 
the world by and through the successors chosen to carry on 
the office and the mission of the Apostles. The members 
of Christ's Church would be called away to enjoy the re- 
ward of their labors ; but the Church itself, built upon the 
Apostles with Christ Himself as its corner stone, would go 
on through the assistance of the Holy Ghost promised by 
Christ Himself when He said : " I will be with you all 
days even to the consummation of the world." These are 
Christ's own promises to the Apostles. The Paraclete 
would remain with them and would bear testimony of Him 
to the world : " But when the Paraclete shall come whom 
I will send you from the Father, the spirit of truth who 
proceedeth from the Father, he shall give testimony of 

278 



THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE. 

me." And again He says: " But the Paraclete, the Holy 
Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will 
teach you all things and bring all things to your mind 
whatsoever I shall have said to you." Knowing then as we 
do, that the Catholic Church is the one only Church that 
claims this infallibility of the Holy Spirit guiding and 
directing it in matters of faith ; and believing as we do that 
the truths promised by our Lord are within the Church, 
teaching and calling to mind whatsoever Christ taught the 
world, we must of necessity admit that the Catholic Church 
is the representative of Christ in this world, and that con- 
sequently if we do not hear her voice, we do not hear the 
voice of Christ ; and if we despise Her, we despise Christ 
Himself. When therefore her truths are put before us 
our first duty is to receive them as coming from God Him- 
self. But this is not sufficient. Our second duty is to 
practise them if we would show ourselves consistent 
Catholics. 

Now the Gospel of to-day affords us an opportunity of 
considering one of the great truths of the Church ; the truth 
that Christ gave power to men upon earth to forgive sins. 
It is a truth with which every Catholic is familiar. In 
his very infancy he becomes acquainted with it. 3STo sooner 
does the age of reason dawn upon him, no sooner does he 
become capable of committing sin, than the Church lays 
hold of him and tells him of her salutary doctrine that he 
is not without hope; that she has the power entrusted to 
her by Christ of forgiving whatever sins her children may 
have had the misfortune to commit. With this great truth 
we are all familiar, but it is sad to see so many who scarcely 
ever make use of this great means of salvation. In order 
that we may stir up the faith that is in us, let us ask our- 
selves what the Church teaches on this particular point, 
and in the second place, let us ask ourselves whether we 
act as Christians professing belief in the Church ; in other 
words are we consistent Catholics. 

The teaching of the Church is as you know, that the 

279 



XXVII. SERMON. 

Sacrament of Penance is necessary for Salvation for all 
those who after Baptism have fallen into mortal sin. It 
is a Sacrament as our Catechism tells us in which all sins 
which we have committed after Baptism are forgiven. 
Hence the person who has lost his baptismal innocence 
must needs avail himself of Penance, which is the only 
means whereby any sin committed after Baptism can be 
forgiven. We ask in vain for any other way by which we 
may obtain God's pardon. We read the inspired word, and 
no other way is made known to us. We ask the Church, 
and she tells us that there is no other way save in confess- 
ing our sins with sorrow of heart to some Priest lawfully 
ordained and commissioned by his Bishop to exercise the 
power of forgiving sins. But we naturally ask whence 
have the Apostles and the Priests the power of forgiving 
sins ? Does it not seem blasphemous to assert that a mere 
man of flesh and blood should exercise this power ? That 
a mere man can absolve and free his fellow man from sin 
in which he is entangled, that a mere man can pardon the 
offences which may have been committed against his God ? 
Christ our Lord did not think it blasphemous. He did 
not think that placing that power in the hands of men 
would in any way prove derogatory to Divine Omnipo- 
tence, and hence He gave it. No person who admits that 
Christ is God, would deny it and say that He did not pos- 
sess this power of forgiving sins Himself ; if He possessed 
such power why might He not delegate this to others as He 
did all other powers to his Apostles. The power and the 
right of baptizing, of preaching, to convince ourselves then 
of truth, we have but to inquire if Christ really possessed 
this gift Himself, and if He did actually commission his 
Apostles to exercise the same. Christ certainly possessed 
it if He proved in any way that He exercised it. And in 
to-day's Gospel we have a beautiful illustration and proof 
that Christ actually exercised this power and that the by- 
standers believed in it. We are told that a man sick of 
the palsy is brought to Him. They came to Him full of 

280 



THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE. 

faith, firmly believing that our Blessed Lord can cure the 
infirmity. And Jesus we are told, seeing their strong and 
ardent faith that made them carry this man to Him while 
yet lying in bed, said to the man sick of the palsy : " Son, 
be of good heart thy sins are forgiven thee." Our Blessed 
Lord seized the occasion to preach and make known to 
them, His power of forgiving sins. How did they receive 
that declaration ? They certainly understood Him, but 
how did they receive this new doctrine ? Much after the 
manner in which people who have not the faith receive it 
to-day. They began to murmur and said within them- 
selves; he blasphemeth, and Jesus reading their thoughts 
said : " Why think you evil in your hearts ? Whether is 
it easier to say : thy sins are forgiven thee, or to say : arise 
and walk. But that you may know " — as though he would 
say, not as God but as man — -" that the Son of Man has 
power on earth to forgive sins ; " then saith he to the man 
sick of palsy : " Arise, take up thy bed and go into thy 
house, and forthwith he arose and went into the house, and 
the multitude seeing it, feared, and gave thanks to God who 
had given such power to man." Here then is a miracle: 
the man sick of the palsy is healed by a mere command to 
arise and walk. And why this miracle ? To prove to those 
who stood around him that He, Christ as man, had the 
power of forgiving sins, and exercised that power. The 
multitude goes away convinced. They admit his power 
and they depart glorifying God who had given it to men. 

And to-clay, if people were less prejudiced, if they were 
to take up and study this power of forgiving sins as exer- 
cised by the Priests of Christ's Church, would they too 
not have to go away glorifying God for the great gift which 
He has given to men ? For is it not true that many a con- 
version has been wrought in the confessional ? Is it not 
true that many a greater miracle has been wrought there 
than the cure that we read of in to-day's Gospel ? Is it not 
equally true that people stay away and avoid that con- 
fession, because they know that if they once present them- 

281 



XXVII. SERMON. 

selves there a miracle must be wrought in them. Is it not 
because they must give up some darling vice, some long 
pampered passion; because they must avoid some danger- 
ous company, or must restore their ill-gotten wealth and 
possessions, though it should lower them in the eyes of the 
world, they must do all this, and hence it is that they re- 
main away. The cry goes up that the Church blasphemes 
when she asserts that her ministers possess this power. 
Christ, when the multitude asserted that He blasphemed, 
proved that he possessed it by working a miracle, and so 
might we say that the Priests of the Church prove their 
pow T er by miracles — for what conversions have not been 
wrought within the confessional! The sinner has gone 
there after years of sin and shame, has gone there when 
his own friends despised him and when the world which 
he had served deserted him. No power on earth could 
give ease and quiet to his distracted conscience, thoughts 
of death haunted him even in moments of pleasure, 
thoughts of the future welled up within him, he beheld 
himself covered with the leprosy of sin, with the leprosy 
of false doing and hidden crimes ; and in the bitterness of 
his heart he seeks to throw off the heavy load, and wishes 
almost hopelessly for the innocence of youth. He seeks 
the confessional, he begins to narrate his life of sin and 
shame ; he meets with no rebuff ; firm, yet sincere and kind 
are the words that are spoken to him. He is told of the 
prodigal who wandered from the house of his good kind 
father where there was plenty and abundance, he is told 
that notwithstanding his sins and transgressions the arms 
of his Father are open to receive him if he is but sorry and 
resolves to do better for the future. Off that heavy heart 
he feels the load taken, tears of gratitude come to his eyes, 
and he rises, even as did the man sick with palsy, full of 
joy and happiness, glorifying God. 

Ah yes ! The miracles of the confessional are numerous. 
Where is the power upon earth that can take a man out of 
his crimes and set him along side of his fellow man and 

282 



THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE. 

restore him to honor and self-respect ? Where is the power 
which can take up the poor degraded wretch who wallows 
in his drunkenness, and make of him a God-fearing, a 
God-loving citizen? Where is the power which can sub- 
due the heart wild w T ith anger ? Where is the power which 
can make the man that plunders go back and return you 
cent for cent and dollar for dollar ? Where is the power 
in fine than can throw its protecting mantle around us and 
shield us from the atmosphere of vice and corruption? 
Law cannot accomplish it, and force would never succeed. 
The law cannot lay hold of the hidden offender, the law 
cannot bring a man to justice until he is found publicly 
guilty. The law can never force a man to the confession 
of his guilt. One power alone can lay hold of him and 
make him turn his eyes upon himself until he becomes sick 
at heart of his own doings, then compel him to a confession 
of his crime, pledging his word that he will show himself 
a better Christian to the world. That force is the miracu- 
lous power of the Confessional. 

But not only have we miracles to prove that the Priests 
have power to forgive sins, we have the Scriptures which 
will testify that Christ gave this power, which He possessed 
and exercised upon so many occasions to the Apostles and 
their successors. We read in the Gospel of St. John that 
on the very day of His resurrection the Apostles were shut 
up in a room for fear of the Jews ; and whilst they were 
there with the doors closed upon them, Jesus Christ sud- 
denly stood in the midst, and said : " Peace be to you." 
And when He had said this he showed them his hands and 
his feet. The Disciples were glad when they saw their 
Lord, and He said to them : " Peace be to you. As the 
Father has sent me I also send you" — consequently with 
the same powers that He as man had been sent into this 
world with these same powers do I send you abroad over 
the world to act as my substitute even with the power of 
forgiving sins. And He said to them : " Keceive ye the 
Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive they are for- 

283 



XXVII. SERMON. 

given them, and whose sins you shall retain they are re- 
tained." Again we read in the Gospel of St. Matthew 
that He bestowed this power upon them. " Amen ! I say 
to you : whatsoever ye shall bind upon earth shall be bound 
in Heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose upon earth shall 
be loosed in Heaven." Here then is the testimony of the 
inspired Word in clear language. Could our Blessed Lord 
have stated His desire to bestow this power more plainly ? 
It will not do to assert that this was conferred upon the 
Apostles and that it was not to descend to their successors, 
for then we break down and destroy the whole edifice of 
Christianity. If this power is not to be exercised by the 
successors of the Apostles, then neither have they a right 
to baptize ; if this power be not left to their successors then 
neither have they a right to preach; and if they have not 
the right to baptize or to preach then we destroy Christian- 
ity ; we destroy the Priesthood of Christ which was to re- 
main forever. The Christian religion then becomes a 
subjective religion, a religion that each individual may 
frame and fashion for himself, not objective, not a religion 
enjoined, a religion beyond and above man; but a religion 
of the creature, not that of the Creator. This then is the 
doctrine of the Church on the Sacrament of Penance. 

But do we act as though we believe it ? In other words 
are we consistent Catholics in this particular ? Is our 
practice in keeping with our faith ? It seems to me that 
there are Catholics who are not consistent in this matter 
for they believe all that we have said and yet they do not 
practise their belief. One class is made up of those persons 
who go to Confession but once a year. They imagine that 
they have done all that is enjoined upon them, and so they 
have — as far as the law of the Church goes — for they are 
commanded to go at least once a year. But this is measur- 
ing out matters with a sparing hand, it is not dealing gen- 
erously with God. Such people have never perhaps asked 
themselves why the Church ever made such a law. It was 
principally on account of the careless, irreligious, indiffer- 

284 



THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE. 

ent life of her children. It was not made — as some would 
seem to think, judging from their practice — to forbid 
people from coming oftener to Confession, but it was a law 
that was forced upon the Church by the indifference, and 
by the carelessness of her children. The person who goes 
once a year lives up to the strict letter of the law, and as 
far as the law goes he has done his duty. But what of the 
law of charity ? "What ought the law of love prompt a 
man to do ? It is very strange that man is so selfish in 
matters that pertain to his religion. Let an opportunity 
present itself of striking some sharp profitable bargain, and 
immediately he avails himself of it. But when it comes 
to a matter of the kind of which we are speaking, when it 
comes to an alliance of friendship with our Blessed Lord; 
then we live on in sin, taking our chances as though we 
were certain that when the time of our death comes we can 
obtain all the consolations of our religion. We realize 
that the soul is to be saved, but we forget and fail to make 
use of its means amid the thousand and one distracting 
cares of the world. 

There is another class of persons who do not go even 
once a year to Confession. They wait for stated periods, 
they wait for a mission, they wait for a Jubilee, or they 
wait for their death bed to make their peace with God. 
Why is it so ? Surely it is not because they are men with- 
out faults, without sins ; and if their souls are stained with 
sin then it was for them, and for them particularly, that 
this Sacrament of Penance was established, for Christ 
says : " I came not to call the just, but sinners to repent- 
ance." Now if there be any such persons present, we 
would ask them to reason thus with themselves. Why am 
I putting off my confession from year to year ? Do I 
believe that the Priests of the Church have power to for- 
give my sins ? Yes ! I cannot deny it ; for I see our Lord 
after His resurrection breathing upon them and telling 
them to act as His substitutes in this world. Do I believe 
that Confession is necessary for the salvation of my soul 

285 



XXVII. SERMON. 

if there be a single mortal sin upon it ? Yes ! For I know 
that mortal sin kills the soul and deserves Hell. I know 
of no way of obtaining pardon for my sins but by confess- 
ing them, and if circumstances are such that I cannot make 
my confession, then I must have what is called perfect con- 
trition, together with the desire of going to confession when 
I can. 

This I firmly believe to be the only way of obtaining re- 
mission of my sins. Why then do I stay away, why do I 
put it off? With this mortal sin upon my soul I know 
that I am already condemned. If I wish to be saved and 
to enjoy happiness I know that I must make my confession 
sooner or later. The present time is the only time I am 
sure of, the future is very uncertain, and I cannot promise 
it to myself. Since then this confession must be made, 
I will at once set about it. 



286 



XXVIII. SERMON. 
BAPTISM. 



" Amen, Amen, I say unto thee unless a man be born again 
of water and the Holy Ghost he cannot enter into the king- 
dom of God" 

John in. 6. 



The Sacraments are channels of grace instituted by our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for the salvation of our 
souls. It is scarcely necessary for me to state that it is 
the express wish of the Church, made known to us by her 
Bishops, assembled in council, that Priests having the 
charge of souls resting upon them should every year speak 
to their people of the principal Mysteries of Religion; 
The Sacraments, the Ten Commandments of God, and the 
Six Commandments of the Church; for the person who 
possesses a knowledge of these things is rich in possessing 
the knowledge of things above and beyond this world; 
a knowledge of things supernatural which will bring forth 
fruit in everyday life, whereas the man ignorant of these 
truths will miss the whole end and aim of his life. But, 
in addition to the wish of the Church, there is another 
reason which prompts the Priest to speak of these truths 
and practices. He is a man who does not live at home, in 
fact he may be said to be a man without a home. His office 
is to move among the people, and as he moves, he must ob- 
serve their wants, and w T e think that there is none which 
falls under his observation oftener than the fact that his 

287 



XXVIII. SERMON. 

people need instruction. We do not mean that they are 
more ignorant than other people ; that they have not had a 
worldly instruction ; they may possess a knowledge of busi- 
ness^ knowledge of what is going on in the w r orld,a knowl- 
edge of trades and professions. All this they have in com- 
mon with mankind ; but what they stand in need of, his ob- 
servation tells him, is religious instruction; that they be 
taught the Sacraments and their effect upon the soul ; that 
they be taught the Ten Commandments of God, and that 
they be taught the precepts of the Church. Day after day 
he meets with full grown people who cannot tell him, if 
asked, the Mysteries of their holy Religion, and Sunday 
after Sunday he meets with children who know nothing of 
these truths, whose parents never trouble themselves to ask 
if their children know T anything of such things These chil- 
dren, poor innocent souls, are not culpable, it is not their 
fault. Speak to them of these things and they are ready 
and anxious to learn. Their parents who are charged by 
our Blessed Lord Himself not to scandalize one of these 
little ones, are careless in instructing their children, and 
many of them though not able themselves to give them this 
necessary instruction, will not send them to their own 
schools, and particularly to Sunday school. Time and 
again complaints are made from the Altar that we cannot 
get the working boys of a parish to a Sunday school where 
they might spend an hour in the week listening to the ex- 
planation of the Catechism. And why is it? Surely it 
is not because they know it sufficiently, for there is no 
Priest who cannot tell you of having met young people 
from fifteen to twenty years of age, who do not know the 
Seven Sacraments. There is no Priest who cannot tell 
you of sick calls where he is compelled to sit at the bedside 
and teach the dying person the very first lessons of the 
Catechism. 

And as for the Commandments and Sacraments, they 
know nothing of them. They have a very vague idea of 
right and wrong. They know that they have been bap- 

288 



BAPTISM. 

tized, but they do not know what Baptism is. Confirma- 
tion they have never heard of, the Eucharist is a very 
strange word, and a Confession is something that they have 
never made. Now this may look very much like an ex- 
aggerated picture, you may be surprised to hear that there 
are people so careless about the salvation of their souls ; yet 
it is the truth, that there are many such people to be found. 
And where do you suppose lies the fault ? We have no 
hesitation in saying that it is the fault of the parents. 
There may be exceptional cases, but they are rare, very 
rare, where the good father and mother are worried to death 
by the faults of their children who have become ungovern- 
able or unmanageable. But as a rule the fault lies at the 
doo - of the parent. You will find that many of them are 
chil [ren of a mixed marriage ; the Catholic side through 
association has fallen off, or is falling rapidly off, from the 
practice of his or her religion. The children are brought, 
perhaps privately, for Baptism; they grow up and see 
father and mother very indifferent to religion ; the con- 
sequence is that they become infected by the irreligious 
atmosphere in which they move, and we meet them in after 
life, as very liberal minded people, who think one religion 
and one creed just as good as another, no matter how con- 
tradictory they may appear. Or again, you will find them 
to be the offspring of drunken parents, of men and women 
who might be comfortable if they were to look after their 
little earnings, but who squander them upon drink. The 
consequence is that their children are neglected, they can- 
not send them to school; for as soon as they are able to 
work, they are compelled to look out for their own living, 
the father and mother being barely able to look after them- 
selves. . ISTow imagine a young child in that state, and there 
are many such ; what think you will it know of its religion 
in after life ? Its father has done it an injustice, he might, 
had he been a careful and frugal husband, have sent that 
child to school for at least a few years, where it would have 
learned its duty to God and to society at large. But it is 
19 289 



XXVIII. SERMON. 

allowed to grow up in ignorance of these duties ; as a con- 
sequence it is met in after life as the young man or woman 
who asserts that he or she is a Catholic, whilst they do not 
live up to a single law of the Church, and never kneel to 
acknowledge their sins and transgressions until they call 
for a Priest on their death bed. 

This is certainly sad. JsTow how can we set about re- 
moving this indifference on the part of some regarding a 
knowledge of their religion? It is a difficult matter for 
a Priest to say how this is to be done, for he knows that 
his voice will reach but few of this class from the pulpit. 
They are not here to be spoken to, they are not here to 
listen and to be instructed. But you, you can do a great 
deal to spread this religious instruction ; you move among 
these careless Catholics daily, you may be able to influence 
them to come to Sunday evening instructions, when they 
will hear some truths of their religion explained, you may 
take away with you what is said on these points and talk 
them over within the hearing of those careless ones. Thus 
you will be spreading the knowledge of God's Word and 
the knowledge of His Holy Religion in the hearts of those 
who are wayward ; thus you will be co-laborers with Jesus 
Christ working with Him for the Salvation of souls. 

Having thus given you reasons why the Priest should 
speak upon the Sacraments, because it is the wish of the 
Church and because people stand in need of such instruc- 
tion, we will say a few words upon the necessity of Bap- 
tism, the first of the Sacraments. 

Baptism as you know, is a Sacrament which makes us 
Christians, children of God and heirs to the kingdom of 
heaven, cleanses us from original sin, and also from actual 
sin if we be guilty of any. Now in this simple definition 
of your Catechism we see the necessity and the effect of 
this Sacrament, the two things of which we propose to 
speak. We are told that it makes us Christians, children 
of God and gives us a right to heaven ; hence if we would 
be Christians, if we would be children of God, if we would 

290 



BAPTISM. 

be heirs of the kingdom of heaven, we must be bap- 
tized. 

But what do we mean when we say that Baptism is neces- 
sary ? Do we mean that a person cannot be saved without 
it ? Cannot the child who is born into this world without 
the power of exercising its understanding, and incapable 
of an act of the will, cannot that child enter into the king- 
dom of God and enjoy the happiness of heaven without 
being baptized ? Yes, we mean that no man can expect 
to see the face of God who has received this Sacrament, 
that no person born of woman can ever expect to enjoy the 
happiness of heaven without being baptized. For this 
bold declaration we have the authority of Jesus Christ 
Himself. St. Matthew tells us that His commission to the 
Apostles was : " To go and teach all nations and baptize 
them." Their baptism was to be co-extensive with their 
teaching, and St. Matthew tells us that Christ after His 
resurrection gave this command to his Apostles when He 
was sending them to spread the truth to the confines of the 
earth : " Go ye into the whole world and preach the Gospel 
to every creature, he that believeth and is baptized shall 
be saved." Could we wish for a declaration more positive, 
for a proof more convincing ? Christ Himself says : " He 
that believeth and is baptized he shall-be saved." All ad- 
mit that faith is absolutely necessary for salvation, yet 
a man will be condemned without it ; though Christ Him- 
self says expressly : " He that believeth and is baptized 
shall be saved." As though he would say, that he who 
hath the faith and at the same time is baptized, he shall be 
saved, but he who hath not the faith and is not baptized he 
shall be condemned. But there is a still stronger proof of 
the necessity of baptism for Salvation to be found in the 
third chapter of the Gospel according to St. John. There 
we are told of a certain ruler by the name of Nicodemus 
who came at night to our Lord to be instructed. He came 
as it were expressing faith in Him for He said : " Rabbi 
we know that thou art come a teacher from God, for no 

291 



XXVIII. SERMON. 

man could do these miracles which thou doest unless God 
were with Him." But Jesus our Lord wishing to make 
known that His faith in Him was not sufficient of itself, 
answered : " Amen, Amen, I say to thee, except a man be 
born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." And Nico- 
demus made answer and said to Him : " How can a man 
be born again when he is old, can he enter the second time 
into the womb of his Mother and be born again ? " Jesus 
answered ; " Amen, Amen, I say to thee unless a man be 
born again of water and the Holy Ghost He cannot enter 
into the kingdom of God." 

We must be born again therefore if we ever expect to 
enter into the kingdom of God. The declaration of Christ 
is general and embraces not only the old and the advanced 
in years, not only those who have gained the use of reason 
and have attained the age of manhood, but likewise the 
little child which has just been born into this world ; all 
without exception must be again born of water and the 
Holy Ghost, must be regenerated in the saving waters of 
Baptism. We are born into this world of sin, but we must 
likewise be born into the spiritual world, the world of 
grace; we must be incorporated with Christ Jesus our 
Lord, we must become members of His mystical body, the 
Church, and to do this we must be baptized. That the 
Apostles understood these declarations of Jesus Christ as 
we have explained them to you is evident from their man- 
ner of acting. They baptized all who came to them pro- 
fessing and believing in our Saviour. St. Peter in his 
first sermon to the people exhorted them to believe in Jesus 
Christ, showed them that he must have been God since he 
wrought such wonderful works in their midst, showed them 
that none but God could raise Himself from the dead, 
proved to them from their prophets that this man Jesus 
whom they had crucified was the Messiah promised to their 
fathers. And the thousands who stood by listening to 
him, we are told in the Acts, had compunction in their 
hearts and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles; 

292 



BAPTISM. 

" Men, Brethren, what shall we do ? " And Peter made 
answer and said to them : " Do penance and be baptized 
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the re- 
mission of your sins, and you shall receive the gifts of the 
Holy Ghost. " We read that they who received His word 
were baptized, " and there were added to them in that day 
about three thousand souls." 

Again, St. Paul giving us the history of his conversion, 
tells us how he was struck to earth, and blinded, on his 
way to Damascus, where he was going to persecute the 
Christians. Whilst lying prostrate he asks ; " Lord what 
shall I do ? " And a voice answers ; " Arise and go into 
Damascus where it shall be told thee the things thou must 
do." Now what was he told when he came to that city; 
he was led there by his companions and when he came there 
one Ananias, a man having a good character according to 
the law from all the Jews dwelling there, came and said 
to him : " Brother Saul receive thy sight, the God of our 
Fathers hath pre-ordained thee that thou shouldst know T 
his will and see the Just One, and shouldst hear the voice 
from His mouth, for thou shall be His witness to all men 
of those things which thou hast seen and heard. And now 
why delayest thou, rise up and be baptized and wash away 
thy sins calling upon His name." Here we see St. Paul 
chosen as the vessel of election, and yet before bearing 
Christ's name to the Gentiles, he must be baptized. An- 
other remarkable instance of the practice of the Apostles 
is given in the Tenth Chapter of the Acts, where we read 
of the Conversion of the Centurion, Cornelius, with his 
family and friends. He was directed in a vision to seek 
out the truth and St. Peter was sent to him. He in- 
structed them, made known to them the Divinity of Jesus 
Christ, called upon them to believe in him, and then per- 
ceiving that the Holy Spirit inspired their hearts and that 
they spoke in tongues, he cried out : " Can any man forbid 
water that these should not be baptized who have received 
the Holy Ghost as well as we ? " And he commanded 

293 



XXVIII. SERMON. 

them to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
Surely this is a striking proof of the necessity of Baptism. 
Peter and the faithful who were with him heard Cornelius 
and his family speaking in divers tongues as when the Holy 
Ghost descended upon the Apostles themselves ; this was a 
sure sign that the Holy Ghost had come down upon them ; 
yet St. Peter showed that the inspiration of the Holy Spirit 
was not sufficient, something is still necessary : they must 
be baptized. And he commanded them to be baptized in 
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

We might introduce other instances from the Scriptures 
showing the belief and the doctrine of the Apostles con- 
cerning the necessity of Baptism, but we have sufficient 
testimony; we have the words of Christ Himself. But 
the question may arise in your minds : what of those who 
cannot receive the Sacrament ? Do we mean that in no 
case whatever can a man be saved unless he receive the 
baptism of water instituted by Jesus Christ ? Yes, we 
mean that no man can be saved unless he receives this 
Sacrament, except in two cases. First: if an unbeliever 
were to hear of the truths of Christ and were to embrace 
them, but yet under such circumstances that he could not 
possibly be baptized with water, he would nevertheless be 
justified by what is called the baptism of desire; that is, 
he believes in Christ and His teachings, he has perfect con- 
trition for his sins, and would if it were possible for him, 
receive the Sacrament of Baptism. Thus if a man were 
to come for instruction to a Priest in order that he might 
prepare him for Baptism ; if he knows of the existence of 
God, has a knowledge of the Trinity, and that one of the 
Divine Persons became man and died for his salvation, 
and if he knows moreover that the Catholic Church has 
been instituted by Christ for the Salvation of mankind, 
and wishes to become a member of that Church by Bap- 
tism ; then if he is perfectly sorry for his past life and past 
sins, a day is appointed for his reception into the Church, 
but suddenly death comes upon him and before the saving 

294 



BAPTISM. 

waters of Baptism are poured upon him, he lies a corpse ; 
that man is justified and saved by what the Theologians 
call : Baptism of Desire. 

The second case in which a person may be justified, 
without the reception of this Sacrament is, when he suffers 
martyrdom for Christ's sake. For instance, if a person 
had heard of Jesus Christ and believed in Him, and on ac- 
count of that belief was led off to death, as many were in 
the early ages of the Church, before he could receive the 
Sacrament of Baptism, that person would be baptized in 
his own blood and would receive what theologians call the 
Baptism of Blood and would be saved. For Christ Him- 
self has said: " Whosoever shall lose His life for my 
sake and for the Gospel shall save it." That is to say 
whoever shall be put to death and leave this present life 
for His sake, or for the Gospel, shall find in its stead life 
everlasting in the next world. 

You may ask about the children who die without re- 
ceiving this sacrament. They cannot have the baptism of 
desire for they have not attained the use of reason, neither 
do they die as martyrs, consequently they have not the 
Baptism of Blood ; what of them ? To this question all 
that we do know for certain is, that without Baptism, 
Christ Himself has said they cannot enter into the king- 
dom of God ; and again He asserts that nothing defiled can 
enter into the kingdom of Heaven. These souls are de- 
filed by Original sin. We do know then for certain that 
they do not enjoy the happiness of Heaven, but what their 
future is we do not know, for as Almighty God has not 
been pleased to reveal it to His Church, we know nothing 
with certainty about their future. We know that they do 
not enjoy God, we have reason to hope that they are not 
condemned, since they have not committed any actual sin ; 
but what is their state of life after death we do not for a 
certainty know. 

Here then we have the Doctrine of Christ and His Church 
on the necessity of Baptism. Since it is so necessary for 

295 



XXVIII. SERMON. 

salvation, parents and others who have the care of children 
should fully realize their responsibility in this matter, and 
should see that their children be baptized as soon as pos- 
sible after their birth. There is no excuse for putting this 
off beyond one week, no excuse for deferring it for a month 
or months, or for a year or years, as we sometimes find 
careless parents doing; it is the only means of Salvation 
offered to the innocent child, and in consequence the 
parents sin grievously and mortally who put off Baptism 
for a long period. They imperil the eternal salvation of 
their offspring by rejecting the only means of Salvation 
offered to the child, and in consequence sin mortally. 



296 



XXIX. SEEMON. 
THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT. 



" Honor thy father and thy mother" 



Some hundreds of years before Christ came upon this 
world there lived a man named Solomon, noted as The 
Wise, for to him Almighty God had given the gift of wis- 
dom. He was the wisest of men and was the king of 
God's chosen people. But, in the midst of all his glory 
as king, surrounded as he was by all that he could desire, 
he never forgot the honor that he owed to those who after 
God gave him life and being. 

We read of this great king that, one day, while seated 
upon his throne receiving the petitions of his subjects, 
there came to him his mother seeking a favor for one of 
his people. No sooner did the king see her than he arose 
from his throne to meet her, bowed to her, and ordered a 
throne to be brought and placed beside him so that his 
mother might be shown the honor which was due to her 
from her son. 

Now what a striking contrast might be drawn from 
this action of Solomon's, who was the wisest and most 
learned of sovereigns, compared with the conduct of many 
of our day who seem to forget that they are obliged by 
God Himself to love, honor, and obey their parents in all 
that is not sin. 

In order then that we at least, my Christian friends, 

297 



XXIX. SERMON. 

may be enabled to do all that is asked of us in this regard, 
we will this evening review the duties of children towards 
their parents. And first of all I would like to insist upon 
the fact that we are bound under pain of sin to honor and 
show signs of love and respect for them. This obligation 
is imposed upon us by the command of God Himself and 
by the law of nature which is found in the most savage 
breast. 

Of the ten commandments that were given to Moses 
amid the thunders and lightnings of Mt. Sinai, the first 
three commandments treat of the duties man owes to God, 
viz: that there is but one God whom all must adore, that 
they must respect His name, not take it in vain, and they 
must keep holy the Sabbath day by resting from servile 
works, and by performing certain religious duties. The 
other seven treat of the duties that man owes to his fellow 
man, and the first of these — which is the fourth command- 
ment — tells us to honor father and mother, that is to say : 
we must love them and respect and obey them in all things 
that are not sinful. 

Hence we find in reading over the Holy Scripture that 
all the servants of God are most attentive to their parents 
in obedience to this commandment. Thus ,we may recall 
the case of Joseph who had been sold by his brothers. A 
famine comes upon the land; Joseph is taken by the king 
and made his chief servant to look after the wants of the 
needy, and when his poor father, not knowing him comes, 
like others, begging for his portion ; no sooner does Joseph 
hear of it than he makes ready his chariot, we are told ; and 
goes out to meet him, and seeing him falls upon his neck, 
embracing him and weeping for joy. 

Again, we have the instance of King Solomon that we 
have just given you, but especially and above all w T e have 
the example of Jesus Christ Himself, when He deigned 
to come upon this earth and to be born of woman. We 
find Him honoring His Mother Mary and His foster-father 
Joseph. You remember how He was lost when only a 

298 



THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT. 

boy twelve years old. We are told in the Gospel that 
after His Mother had sought Him for three days she 
finally found Him seated in the midst of the doctors teach- 
ing them and asking them questions, and when she beheld 
Him she rebuked Him as it were and said to Him : " Son, 
why hast Thou done so to us? Behold Thy father and I 
have sought Thee sorrowing " ; and we read that He went 
down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject 
and obedient to them. And mark it well: you may read 
the four Evangelists, and this is all that you will find told 
of the life of Christ from His twelfth year to His thir- 
tieth. The only history w T e get of those years of His life 
is that He lived at Nazareth subject to the wishes of His 
parents. Can we not then w T ell imagine the boy Jesus as 
a most dutiful son, anticipating the wishes of His parents. 
Can we not imagine Him performing all errands — and 
from what we know of His foster-father St. Joseph who 
was a carpenter — are w T e amiss when we picture Him in 
the workshop handling the hammer and the nails, working 
by the labor of His hands and earning w 7 ith St. Joseph, 
by the sweat of His brow, His daily sustenance % 

Again, when He appeared in public life we meet with 
Him at the marriage of Cana, and though the time had 
not yet come for Him to manifest His power, still at the 
request of His Mother His first miracle is performed ; that 
of changing water into w T ine. Again, upon His death bed, 
which was the hard wood of the cross ; when the last hour 
of His bitter agony was upon Him; when all the torture 
that brutal soldiers could inflict had been exhausted ; when 
His eyes w 7 ere closing upon the throng that stood about 
Him ; He met for the last time the eyes of His sorrowful 
Mother and immediately His care and kindness for her 
manifested itself and He places her under the care of His 
beloved disciple St. John saying : " Son, behold thy 
Mother, Mother, behold thy Son." And Oh ! were we per- 
mitted to withdraw the veil that hides us from the in- 
visible world, would w T e not see Him still honoring that 

299 



XXIX. SERMON. 

Mother? For does not our faith tell us of the mystery 
of the coronation, and would we not behold that Mother 
seated beside her Son even as was the mother of Solomon, 
putting up the petitions of so many of His unfaithful 
subjects of this world. 

But even if we had never been commanded, even if we 
had never had the example of Jesus Christ Himself, na- 
ture would teach us that we should be grateful, and that 
therefore we should respect those who have been placed 
over us in this world as our guardians and protectors. 
If there be any subject worthy of hatred in this world it 
is the ungrateful man, the man who shows no gratitude 
for favors that he has received, the man who Judas-like 
can smile upon you when you are loading him with honors, 
but who can turn from you and betray you when there are 
a few pieces of silver to be gained. If there be an object 
worthy of gratitude in this world, it is that father and 
mother who have brought you into this life; for what 
have they not done for you ? After God you owe them 
your life, and owing them your life, you owe them all 
things else. 

How many years have they provided for you, supplied 
you with everything that was necessary for you, when 
you were lying a helpless babe in your cradle ? With 
what tenderness did not your mother watch over you, 
nourishing you with the substance of her own body. 
When you grew up and began to be interesting, what anx- 
iety lest something should befall you and God would 
take you to Himself ! And when the time came for you 
to receive instruction, what sacrifices have they not made 
on your account ? If your parents were wealthy, with no 
sparing hand did they give you of their wealth, in order 
that they might afford you an education that would place 
you before the world as worthy of respect. If they were 
poor and not blessed with too much of this world's goods, 
still greater were their sacrifices. You can see the mother 
stinting herself, depriving herself of many a little comfort, 

300 



THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT. 

putting by the shilling and the dollar that is to be spent 
in order to make you happy, in order to give you an edu- 
cation that they on account of circumstances could not 
obtain. You can see the father toiling from early morn- 
ing until late evening, working with an earnestness, and 
with a zeal that tells you he is living to make his children 
happy ; to make them all that God would have them ; 
working and toiling until the flesh upon his hands grows 
crusted, till his shoulders are stooped and bent, till he 
works himself into his grave. The only return he asks 
is gratitude, your love, respect and obedience ; surely that 
heart must be callous and that mind must be indeed for- 
getful that will not show its gratitude for so many favors. 
And carry gratitude to its highest result can we ever re- 
pay that mother for her sufferings, for her watchings day 
and night; can we ever repay that father for his anxiety 
and for his labor, for the sacrifices and self-denials that 
he has made ? Is it at all wonderful that we should read 
these words of Holy Scripture: " Honor thy Father and 
forget not the groanings of thy Mother. Remember that 
thou hadst not been born but through them, and make a 
return to them as they have done to you." And again: 
" Thou shalt honor thy Mother all the days of thy life, 
for thou must be mindful of what great perils she suf- 
fered for thee in her womb." There is no doubt then but 
that we must show proper honor and respect to our parents, 
no doubt that we are obliged to do so in virtue of God's 
expressed law, and in virtue of the law of nature. 

But how are we to honor them? It consists of three 
things: love, respect, and obedience. These are the three 
duties that we owe them. In the first place we must love 
them. We know the law of charity : that we must love our 
neighbor as ourselves. Now if this law of nature obliges 
us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, is it not easy 
to conclude that this love must be entertained and carried 
to an eminent degree with regard to our parents, for beside 
the many motives which induce us to love our parents, 

301 



XXIX. SERMON. 

have we not special motives obliging us to love them ? 
Are they not the representatives of God for us ? He is 
our Creator, preserver and ruler ; and what is the parent ? 
Is he not appointed by God to perfect his work by calling 
forth all the dormant faculties of the soul? Is he not 
appointed to be the preserver of the child by providing for 
it in its helplessness ? Is he not appointed to be its ruler 
by so bringing it up that it may be the joy of its family, 
the hope of its country, and the glory of the Church. 

Love for our parents must be a sincere and cordial love, 
an affection that is real. 

The reality of our affection must manifest itself in our 
words and actions. By praying for them, by speaking 
kindly to them, doing them every service in our power, 
and studying to the utmost to make their life happy and 
agreeable; by dutiful affection and respectful behavior, 
especially by giving them all necessary assistance both 
for soul and body when poverty, old age or sickness comes 
upon them. 

And here let me protest against a certain extravagance 
that young men and young women indulge in these days, 
when their parents are actually in distress. How many do 
we know, and how many a young man or woman falls un- 
der our observation who is heedless of the wants and neces- 
sities of their parents ? How many of them have left 
their parents beyond the sea, quitted their homes, and 
perhaps took with them the last farthing that was in the 
house ? To-day the father and mother cry out in vain 
for even a letter from their children. When starting 
from home tears coursed down their cheeks and promises 
were given, broken by sobs, that they would never forget 
father and mother, who were affording them the means 
of going where they might better their condition. When 
they said their last farewell, they knew they were never 
more to gaze on the sorrowful countenances that watched 
with tearful eyes the receding ship upon this side of the 
grave. But they felt their hearts bursting with love, and 

302 



THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT. 

they would never forget their parents. What was the re- 
sult ? Thrown into a strange land ; feeling all the loneli- 
ness of a person that walks in the midst of strangers ; for a 
time they remain faithful to their promises and letters 
were exchanged filled with kind words of hope, with assur- 
ances that they would be soon able to give them assistance. 
But years go by, acquaintances are formed, they are no 
longer strangers in the city or in the town, they move with 
those who possess more of this world's goods than they 
do, and they feel that they must keep up with them in 
appearance and costly dress, in going to places of amuse- 
ment, in appearing wealthy before the world; the conse- 
quence is that the old and infirm are forgotten, the words 
of hope that were exchanged in the beginning have ceased, 
and their parents are allowed to die in their old age with- 
out having even the consolation of knowing whether their 
children are dead or alive. And the fast young man 
during all this time is throwing his spare money into the 
till of the bar-room keeper, while the young woman is 
decking herself out in every tawdry fashion that society, 
as it is called, chooses to put on. 

Is it at all wonderful that we should read in Holy 
Scripture of God Himself cursing such children? u He 
that afHicteth his father and chaseth away his mother is 
infamous and unhappy." And again: " He that steal- 
eth," that is that taketh aw T ay by not giving what is nec- 
essary : " He that stealeth anything from his father or 
from his mother and saith this is no sin, is the partner of 
a murderer/' because he does not give the little that he 
might to support them in their old age. 

The second duty that children owe their parents is that 
of respect, that is to say that in their hearts they must 
have an esteem and a reverential fear for their parents, 
never despising them no matter what may be their weak- 
nesses. The faults of parents claim sympathy and com- 
passion, but never justify contempt. We read in the book 
of Ecclesiastes these words : " Son, support the old age 

303 



XXIX. SERMON. 

of thy father, and grieve him not in his life. If his un- 
derstanding fail, have patience with him and despise him 
not when thou art in thy strength/' And again: 
" Hearken to the father that begot thee, and despise not 
thy mother when she is old." And again : " Cursed be 
he that honoreth not his father and mother. 3 ' We have 
then to respect our parents, to reverence them as our pa- 
rents no matter what may be their imperfections. And 
yet, what are we to think of children who will break out 
in abusive language, call names, and even curse those who 
are appointed by God to look after them ? What of chil- 
dren who mock their parents, speak of their defects in 
order that others may laugh at them ? What above all 
of children who are ashamed of their parents, who will 
not be seen with them; and, mind you, not because their 
parents are addicted to the vice of drunkenness, but sim- 
ply because they are not in their style of dress, in their 
appearance, in their manner, as presentable to society as 
others are. Children never acknowledge this to them- 
selves, they do not like to think of it, they feel that it is an 
act of the greatest ingratitude, and they endeavor to con- 
ceal it; at times they imagine that it is noticed by the 
father and mother, but all the while their behavior is 
keenly cutting to the father and mother, who feel that 
their children are ashamed of them, and yet, with their 
kindness and love, would not charge them with it. 

Oh, if we are addressing any of that class we exhort 
them to throw away that pride which would make you 
despise father and mother. Be manly, and face the world 
with an air of honesty and sincerity, and no matter what 
may be the defects of your parents, acknowledge them 
before men and the world itself. 

The third and last duty is that of obedience; that is 
to say, that we must listen to the advice of our parents 
and act upon it. " Hear, my son, the instructions of thy 
father, and forget not the law of thy mother, that grace 
may be added to thy head and a chain of gold to thy 

304 



THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT. 

neck." And again we read in St. Paul : " Children, 
obey your parents in the Lord for this is just, honor thy 
father and thy mother, which is the first commandment 
with a promise." 

To carry out this duty in the first place our duty must 
be, as St. Paul says : " Entire in all things and in the 
Lord ; " that is to say, we must obey our parents in all that 
is not sin. We must remember, too, that our parents 
are placed over us to represent God Himself; therefore 
when we obey them we obey God Himself, whose place 
they take. We must remember that whatever they wish 
us to do is all for our own good. It may seem strange at 
times, but when we go contrary to their wishes we are 
unhappy. 

In the second place our obedience must be cheerful, 
ready, and pleasant, without excuse or without stubborn- 
ness or harsh words. We must remember the promise 
that Almighty God holds out to faithful children, which 
is: to grant a long and happy life in this world and ever- 
lasting happiness in the next. Surely this is a reward 
w^orth struggling for, a reward that lives within the grasp 
of every child. If we would obtain it, we should keep 
our eyes ever turned towards the lowly house of Nazareth 
where the obedience of the child Jesus was perfect. We 
must all, fathers and mothers, and children, keep that 
house in view, for that family is the model family of the 
world. Fathers and mothers should study therefore to 
make their homes like it by living in harmony and quiet 
with one another, making allowances for one another's de- 
fects, remembering that none of us are perfect and that 
all of us have our faults. Children should study its peace, 
its quiet, its harmony, and ask themselves how much the 
child Jesus contributed to the comfort and happiness of 
the domestic circle. They will see Him loving Mary His 
Mother and St. Joseph His foster Father, they will see 
Him respecting them, they will see Him obedient, and 
from this they will learn that Jesus, who is God, must 
20 305 



XXIX. SERMON. 



have had instruction of children before His mind when 
He thus submitted to the creatures of His hand. They 
will learn from Him a lesson of humility that will make 
them faithful children and religious men and women. 



306 



XXX. SERMON. 
MATRIMONY. 



44 What God therefore hath joined together 
let no man put asunder" 

Math. xix. 6. 



The words of St. Paul, " This is a great Sacrament, 
but I speak in Christ and the Church/' give us an idea of 
the nature and dignity of the Sacrament of Matrimony. 
From the fact that it is a sacrament, we would draw these 
deductions: that it is indissoluble, and that it must be 
contracted in the manner prescribed by the Church. Our 
Catechism tells us that Matrimony is a Sacrament which 
gives grace to the married couple to live happily together, 
and to bring up their children in the fear and love of God. 
It is an indissoluble union, contracted by and between 
one man and one woman, in a lawful manner, by which 
they are obliged to live together all the days of their lives, 
and to bring up their offspring in the fear and love of 
God; and in order that they may be able to do all this, 
Almighty God gives them a grace peculiar to this Sacra- 
ment when entering into marriage. As in treating of 
Baptism, Penance and the other Sacraments of the 
Church, we ask ourselves whether or not they possessed 
the essential characteristics of a Sacrament, so in like 
manner, in treating of Matrimony, we must also seek for 
those three essentials. In the first place we must ask ; for 

307 



XXX. SERMON. 

the visible sign; in the second place we must seek for the 
promise of grace which is attached to every Sacrament; 
and in the third place we must determine the divine in- 
stitution, and ask ourselves whether or not Marriage was 
instituted by Jesus Christ as a Sacrament. 

Now none of us doubt for a moment of the outward and 
visible sign in this Sacrament, for it is the mutual consent 
of the parties expressed in words or other signs under the 
conditions which the laws of God and His Church require. 
Thus the parties ask each one in turn, whether they are 
ready and willing to enter into a life long contract one with 
the other; and the answer given is the visible sign by 
which they make known their intention. But with re- 
gard to the second characteristic, are we certain that Jesus 
Christ instituted this Sacrament ? In the beginning of 
time we read that God created all things, and in the midst 
of that creation stood man alone ; and we read in the book 
of Genesis that the Lord God said : " It is not good for 
man to be alone, let us make him a helpmate like unto him- 
self ; " and then we are told that the Lord cast a deep sleep 
upon Adam, and when He was fast asleep, He took one 
of his ribs and filled up flesh for it, and He built the 
rib which He took from Adam into a woman and brought 
her to Adam, and Adam in a voice of prophecy cried out : 
" This now is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh, she 
shall be called Woman because she was taken out of man. 
Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother and shall 
cleave to his wife and they shall be two in one flesh." 
More than this, we read that God blessed them saying: 
" Increase and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, 
and rule over it, the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the 
air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth/' 
Certainly from this account given in the first book of the 
Sacred Text, it is evident that God is the author of the 
marriage state; for in this relation we see God forming 
the woman, presenting her to Adam, and blessing them 
both as the first of rational creatures upon the earth. This 

308 



matrimony. 

was the first marriage that was celebrated in the world, 
and this marriage had God for its author. 

The world went on, and four thousand years had elapsed 
when our Blessed Lord came upon this earth, and strange 
to say, one of His first public acts as the God-man was to 
present Himself at a marriage feast. On the third day 
says the Evangelist, " there was a marriage in Cana of 
Galilee, and Jesus was invited ; " He comes and assists 
at, and by His presence blesses, that marriage. God as- 
sisted at the first marriage, and here as soon as He comes 
upon this earth in human form we find Him assisting 
again at a marriage. God blessed the first, and here, 
clothed in His humanity and walking among men, we 
find Him blessing and confirming a second by His pres- 
ence. Such has been the interpretation of the Fathers 
and Theologians of the Church upon this marriage feast 
at Cana. They say that it was then that our Blessed 
Lord elevated that matrimonial state of which He was 
the author — when our first parents were made — to the 
dignity of a Sacrament of the new law, and nothing is 
more natural. For take the other Sacraments, and you 
will find that they are administered in the different stages 
of life, and grace is given by them, through the merits of 
Christ according to the wants of the individual who re- 
ceives them. Thus Baptism is given to the child ; faith 
is infused into the soul before reason dawns, simply be- 
cause it is a need of the child ; for without faith it may 
never hope to see God. Again, when the child grows up, 
when reason asserts itself and might be exposed to the 
danger of doubt respecting matters of faith, Confirmation 
is administered, and a new grace is imparted by which 
the child is strengthened in his faith and holy religion. 
The child develops into the man, and he has to enter into 
the conflict of life and meet with temptations from with- 
out. The passions assail him from within, and time and 
again he yields and offends his Maker. Another want 
is experienced j he wishes to be reconciled to God, and to 

309 



XXX. SERMON, 

obtain strength, in order that he may be able to resist all 
evil inclinations in the future; and this want of the soul 
is supplied by the Sacrament of Penance through which 
the soul is again made pleasing to God. Then comes the 
Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, in which Christ Him- 
self is given so that the soul may enjoy the very strength 
of God's own might and power in repelling temptation. 
So too when death approaches, when our enemy redoubles 
his efforts to gain us; realizing that the last and decisive 
moment has arrived, and that he or Jesus Christ must 
gain us over in those few moments for an everlasting life 
of happiness, or of woe, in the next world, our Lord has 
been pleased to institute the Sacrament of Extreme Unc- 
tion, through which grace is conveyed to give peace and 
quiet to the soul in order that we may die happily. And 
now, if our Blessed Lord has been pleased to provide for 
the wants of the soul in all these different periods of our 
life, certainly when we come to choose a state of life, a 
state that Ave enter into with the intention of remaining 
there till death shall come upon us, and moreover a state 
of life in which we are called upon to give up our wills, 
nay the very possession of ourselves we might say to an- 
other, called to it as men by the very inclination and de- 
sire of nature itself, surely He who has provided for all 
the wants of frail nature will not desert His creatures then, 
but institute for them a means through which grace will 
be given whereby they may be prepared to encounter and 
overcome all the difficulties of their undertaking; even 
as He has provided the Sacrament of Holy Orders, with 
its graces and helps for those who are called upon to imi- 
tate His life more closely in its purity and holiness. Even 
humanly speaking and even without recourse to the re- 
vealed word, nothing is more natural than that God should 
confirm and raise to the dignity of a Sacrament those 
pledges of undying love that were entered into before His 
very presence in the garden of Eden, and that were again 

310 



MATRIMONY. 

contracted in His presence when He walked among men 
on this earth. 

But where is the promise of grace, and is grace really 
given in this sacrament as in all others? Recall the 
words of St. Paul; that Apostle tells us that Matrimony 
is a great Sacrament in Christ and in the Church, and 
why does He assert that it is a great Sacrament? Is it 
because it is greater than any other, for we know that this 
word GREAT is not used when speaking of the other 
Sacraments. Is it more holy than the other Sacraments, 
more holy than baptism by which we are made children 
of God, or more holy than Holy Orders which gives the 
creature power over the body and blood of Christ. No, 
this is not the meaning of St. Paul; it is a great Sacra- 
ment because of what it represents. This is His mean- 
ing: it represents the close union of the undying love of 
Jesus Christ for His Church, and therefore a great Sac- 
rament. If then you should have an idea of this channel 
of grace, consider the union and love which exists be- 
tween Christ and His Church. Jesus Christ we are told 
descended from Heaven, came down upon the earth to be 
united with His Church through grace and love, and there- 
fore it was that He left His heavenly home; so in like 
manner the husband must be united with his wife leaving 
father and mother and all things else for her sake. The 
Church sprang into existence when the side of Christ was 
opened on the cross, and so likewise the woman was taken 
from the side of man while sleeping in the garden. Jesus 
Christ is the head of the Church, so too is the husband 
the head of the wife. Jesus Christ is the protector and 
guardian of the Church, laying down his life for it; but 
for what purpose? For the intention of sanctifying, of 
rendering it pure and spotless so that he might make it 
on the last day the possessor of eternal joys. So also 
should the husband be the protector, the guardian, the 
lover of the wife ; but always with a view that he and she 
may share the joys of that kingdom in the hereafter. 

Sit 



XXX. SERMON. 

Jesus Christ is so united to the Church that He loves it 
as if it were Himself. So also must " husbands love 
their wives even as Christ loves the Church, even as He 
loveth His own flesh ; for no man ever hateth his own flesh, 
but cherisheth it as also Christ does the Church." It is 
in this manner that Jesus Christ has elevated the state 
of Marriage to the dignity of a Sacrament in the new law, 
and therefore instituted it as a channel of grace for all 
those who receive it with the proper dispositions. Jesus 
has made it the very image and sacred sign of His fixed 
and everlasting union with the Church, which is a union 
of grace and of love ; therefore this Sacrament which 
symbolizes the love of Jesus Christ carries with it the 
grace necessary to perfect this union, and make it as like 
as possible to His union with His beloved spouse upon 
this earth, the Church of God. 

Behold then Christian people your dignity; the hus- 
band represents in this state of life no less a person than 
Jesus Christ Himself, and the wife represents no less a 
spouse than the spouse of Christ, — the Church ; your 
union is the figure of the union of Jesus Christ and His 
Church, and therefore it is that St. Paul says, " This 
is a great Sacrament; but I speak in Christ and in the 
Church." If then you are to represent that intimate 
union of Christ with His spouse, be one in mind, be one 
in heart and in affection ; above all be one in your faith, 
which is Catholic, and you will be the worthy ministers 
of Christ in representing His love to the world. You 
will be as it were co-creators with God, perpetuating so- 
ciety, perpetuating those who will be made His children 
by the waters of Baptism, perpetuating those who will be 
members of His spouse; you will be building up that 
Church for which He " delivered Himself in order that 
He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not 
having spot or wrinkle " or any such thing, but that it 
should be holy and without blemish. 

This leads us naturally to our first deduction : that mar- 

312 



Matrimony. 

riage when once contracted can never be broken by any 
power upon this world save death. Death alone can sep- 
arate husband and wife, for death alone takes either one 
out of this world. This is at strange variance with the 
doctrines and opinions of men in our day; nay it is at 
strange variance with the practice of governments, that 
admit a system of legalized divorce. To determine the 
indissolubility of marriage we have but to ask the Church, 
and her teaching is, and always has been, that parties who 
contract marriage can never be separated in such manner 
that while one is alive the other may be married to an- 
other; and this her teaching is the teaching of Jesus 
Christ, and His teaching is the teaching of God, it con- 
sequently must be received despite the practices and 
opinions of men. To show that such is the teaching of 
our Blessed Lord we might again repeat for you the w r ords 
of St. Paul, where he asserts that Marriage should re- 
present the union of Christ with His Church. We know 
that Christ is wedded to the Church ; He has given His 
divine word which cannot be broken that He will not sep- 
arate Himself from it. Now if Matrimony should sym- 
bolize this union as it must according to St. Paul, then 
must the husband and w T ife pledge themselves never to 
separate but to remain bound to each other till time for 
them will be no more. But beyond this we have Christ's 
own express words for it in the Gospel ; that the Pharisees 
came to Him tempting Him and asking Him questions, 
and among others they put this plain straight-forward 
question to Him : " Is it lawful for a man to put away 
his wife ? " Our Blessed Lord made answer and said to 
them : " Have you not read that He who made man in 
the beginning made them male and female, and have you 
not read that it was said : For this cause shall man leave 
his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife and 
they too shall be two in one flesh, wherefore they are not 
two but one." Have you not read all this ? Therefore 
it w r as the intention of their Maker that they should re- 

313 



XXX. SERMON. 

main forever united. " What therefore God hath joined 
together let no man put asunder. " But they were not 
satisfied with that answer, for they remembered that there 
were cases when Moses allowed men to put away their 
wives ; and they said to Him : " Why then did Moses 
allow us to give a bill of divorce and put her away ? " 
And now my friends mark the words of our Blessed Lord 
in reply, for certainly His answer now must be a very 
clear one since they have placed Him in this dilemma. 
He has told them very clearly that the intention of their 
Maker was that they should be no longer two, but one; 
but they recall the fact that Moses, who was the chosen 
leader of the people, allowed them to give a bill of di- 
vorce. Now mark his reply, " Moses/' said he, " because 
of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to put away 
your wives, but from the beginning it was not so; and 
therefore I say now to you whosoever shall put away his 
wife and shall marry another committeth adultery." But 
even this answer did not seem to satisfy all, and the dis- 
ciples when at home with him, as on several occasions be- 
fore, asked Him privately whether it is not lawful for a 
man to separate and his answer to them a second time is 
as related in the Gospel of St. Mark : " Whosoever shall 
put away his wife and marry another committeth adultery 
against her, and if the wife shall put away her husband 
and be married to another she committeth adultery." 
Could the laws of God be more explicit? Could it be 
stated in simpler words ? Here is the reason that the 
Church has ever set herself against divorce ; here is- the 
simple reason why she has upheld, and to-day upholds, 
despite the civil laws to the contrary, the indissolubility 
of Marriage. 

It is a law not of her making, but of Christ's own form- 
ing, and as she is in this world as the guardian of His 
word and of His law, therefore it is that she maintains 
this law despite all opposition. She maintains with St. 
Paul that Matrimony is a great Sacrament, and conse- 

314 



MATRIMONY. 

quently as such it belongs to her, and to her alone, to say 
when this contract is valid or invalid, and how long men 
are to be bound by it. She does not recognize the teach- 
ing of men, or state, or government, upon the matter ; she 
recognizes that the state has a power that should preserve 
the laws framed by Christ not as a power that can revoke 
or annul His laws at its own pleasure; she is the inter- 
preter of His laws, and the state is its protector. The 
second deduction that follows from the fact that Matri- 
mony is one of the seven Sacraments of the Church is: 
that being a Sacrament, it falls within the province of 
the Church to say in what manner, and before whom, it 
should be solemnized ; and her teaching in this matter is : 
that it should be entered into before her ministers, and 
in the presence of witnesses. The proof that the Church 
has the power, from the very fact of Matrimony being 
one of the Sacraments of the new law is this : take any of 
the Sacraments which you have received and ask who it 
w 7 as that administered that Sacrament to you. When you 
were baptized, who made use of the words ordained by 
Christ and said : " I baptize you in the name of the 
Father, etc. ? " When you were confirmed who was it 
that made use of the words : " I sign thee with the sign 
of the cross, I confirm you with the chrism of salvation in 
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost." When you wished to receive the Sacrament of 
Penance, who is it that says the words : I absolve you in 
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost. And so, too, when death approaches and steals 
you from this world, who is it that you expect to stand 
over you praying that the infirmities of your nature may 
be forgiven through the Sacrament of Extreme Unction ? 
You will look to the Church's minister for the adminis- 
tration of all these Sacraments^ and who therefore should 
be the one to say: I join you together in the bonds of 
marriage in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Ghost ? There is no Catholic who will fail 

315 



XXX. SERMON. 

to see the consistency of this argument, and all must ad- 
mit that they should contract these unions before the 
Church, and receive the Church's blessing upon them. 
We do not take our children to Baptism to a minister of a 
different religion, nor to any city squire or justice; why 
therefore if we be Catholics, nay more, how can we, if we 
be true Catholics disobey the Church's teaching in this 
matter. Is not Matrimony a Sacrament and should it not 
be received as any Sacrament of the Church ? And yet, my 
friends, we only know too well, all of us, that there are 
individuals who are so regardless of the laws of the 
Church, that they actually seem to transgress them de- 
fiantly. Their motives cannot be well determined, for 
they know that if they are to be married, the Church can 
dispense and they may be married if there be valid rea- 
sons for it. And yet, knowing all this, people who should 
know their religion, who have been brought up in the 
shadow of the Church we might say, go off in defiance of 
the law. Hence it is, that to stop the abuse, to bring per- 
sons to a true sense of their duty, that such persons con- 
tracting marriage before a minister of any denomination 
except their own, are then and there excommunicated, 
and their case reserved to the Bishop. Their marriage 
is valid if there be no impediment that annuls it ; but yet, 
he or she who contracts such marriage is then and there 
excommunicated. Now in the face of such a law it is to 
be hoped that such marriageSj as far as we are concerned 
may cease. Realize that when you are called upon to en- 
ter this state of life, you are called upon to receive a Sac- 
rament, and that in consequence of that you should re- 
ceive it in your own Church, as you receive any other 
Sacrament; prepare yourself for its reception as you 
would for the reception of any Sacrament, by cleansing 
your souls from sin in the Sacrament of Penance, and by 
receiving the precious Body and Blood of Christ. Then 
you may expect to receive God's own blessing together 
with the graces of the Sacrament, and you can look for- 

316 



MATRIMONY. 

ward to a hopeful future. True, clouds may rise and 
break over your heads; you may meet with many disap- 
pointments and trials in life; troubles may arise, but the 
grace that accompanies this Sacrament will render you 
able to bear the crosses that are strewn in your path 
through this land of exile and valley of tears. 



31? 



XXXI. SERMOff. 
THE DUTIES OF PARENTS. 



" But if any man has not care of his own, and especially 
those of his house, he hath denied the faith and is tvorse than 
an infidel. 11 

Tim. v. 8. 



If we endeavored to point out some of the many causes 
of infidelity and of the unbelief that we witness in the 
world, we would find that the education offered us, the 
literature surrounding us, the pulpit which should be the 
guardian of faith and belief, seem in some manner to con- 
spire against man in order to rob him of that precious 
heirloom the gift of faith. 

Examine the results attending these causes. First of 
all, their offshoot is naturally the man of unbelief, the in- 
fidel: secondly, the non-practical Christian, the non-prac- 
tical Catholic, that is to say; the man who professes that 
he is a Catholic, that he is a member of Christ's Church, 
while he practises but few, if any, of her six command- 
ments. But from the words of St. Paul which we have 
just read to you, we may reasonably conclude that there 
is another very powerful cause at work giving us as its 
result the very poor Catholic. He tells us that any man 
who has not care of his own, and especially those of his 
house, hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. 

We would have parents think over this saying of the 
Apostle St. Paul and ask themselves in all sincerity, have 
they a care of their own; do they care and provide for 

318 



THE DUTIES OF PARENTS. 

their children as they should, do they observe the duties 
imposed upon them by the natural and the divine law in 
bringing up their children, or have they denied faith and 
become worse than infidels ? 

Let us examine ourselves upon this particular point. 
Are you as parents preparing your children still inexper- 
ienced and young in years, for the mission that awaits 
them ? Mission, you ask ? Has the child a mission ? 
Yes, and a vast one. He should be the joy and happiness 
of his family. He should be the true citizen, the hope 
of his country; he should be the faithful Christian, the 
true son, the glory of his Church and of his Religion. 
Behold the mission of every child that is born into the 
world, and ask yourselves: do you so instruct, and do you 
so provide for them that they may become the pride of 
their family, the hope of their country, the glory of their 
Church ? 

The child as it slumbers in its cradle awakens hopes and 
fears in the breast of every tender Mother. She watches 
it as it sleeps, she sorrows with it when it suffers, she re- 
joices with it when she beholds it occupied in its childish 
sports, and she often asks herself what will be the future 
of this child; and she no doubt often sketches in fancy 
how that child will be the maintenance of her old age. 
But oh, the stern reality of the lives of children which 
surround her who has grown up side by side with them: 
the sad fate reserved for them although they promised 
well in their infancy. The reality of all this occurs to 
her, and puts to flight the thoughts that occupy her mind. 
She shrinks from the thought that her child will turn out 
like them, shrinks from the thought that in her old age she 
will be left alone heart-sore and heart-broken; shrinks 
from the thought that that child as soon as it comes to 
the years of discretion will treat her thanklessly, nay, bring 
her disgrace and shame. She shrinks from the thought 
that would suggest him as irreligious, as the drunkard, as 
the man of no conscience and no belief ; and in order that 

319 



XXXI. SERMON. 

she may prevent that dark future, for she knows full well 
that his character lies within her hands and may be 
moulded by her, " as the twig is bent the tree is inclined/' 
she there resolves that she will bring him up in such a 
manner as to be the stay and happiness of her future. 

Such is her resolve and such her wish; that her child 
may fulfill its mission in the family, to be its joy and its 
happiness. But, born into the world it is born into so- 
ciety, and there it likewise has its mission. It belongs to 
the great human family which is only circumscribed by 
the limit of the world ; it is a member of the state, a use- 
ful citizen whose arms may be one day devoted to the de- 
fence of his country. If in the design of Providence he 
is to be numbered among the poor, the class who must 
labor for their daily sustenance by the sweat of their 
brow, then he is called upon to show himself the useful 
member of society by his industry; the conscientious man 
by his honesty, the patriotic man by his loyalty and re- 
spect for laws and authority. 

On the other hand if destined to rank among the rich 
ones of the w T orld, if it be his fortune to possess wealth 
and possess it in abundance, then too he must show him- 
self the useful member of society by using his wealth to 
benefit others. Or again, if he be called to execute the 
powers of the state, to administer the laws of his country 
he must again show to the w r orld his usefulness by his 
conscientious administration, his impartiality, his justice, 
by respecting the rights, whilst he enforces the duty of 
all. 

A third mission is left for him, he is born into life, a 
life which does not end with the grave ; a life which is to 
be everlasting. He comes bearing upon his immortal soul 
the image and the likeness of his God. By his Baptism he 
becomes a child of the Church, and he is called to be the 
glory of that Mother who has begotten him anew of water 
and of the spirit; he is one of the elect of heaven, he 
is a co-heir, a brother, a companion in arms with the saints 

320 



THE DUTIES OF PARENTS. 

and with the elect of God. He must take part in the trials 
and battles which his Lord and Master Jesus Christ has 
marked out for him, and like a true soldier he must listen 
and obey the voice of his commander. In virtue of his 
creation and redemption he is called upon to follow his 
divine Master, and his voice is His Church, for Christ has 
told us : " He who heareth you heareth Me, and he who 
despiseth you despiseth Me." 

He is called upon then in a word to listen to and obey 
the Church, to show himself a real man of belief by obey- 
ing her precepts, and fulfilling all that she enjoins as his 
Mother. In what manner then, parents, ask yourselves, 
in w T hat manner are you preparing your children for this 
three-fold mission which lies before them ? How vast 
and how grand it is, how great is the dignity of every 
child that is born into this world of ours. Would you 
measure your own, would you know your own mission; 
study that of the child as we have now done, and then you 
have some idea of the dignity of the mission of every 
father and mother; for the father and mother are called 
upon to make their children fit for their station in the 
family, in society and in the Church. Where then are you 
to perform this work, and how are you to accomplish it? 
What are your duties w 7 ith regard to your children ? The 
great school-room where they are to receive their first in- 
struction and their first lesson, is in the family. There, 
within the mother's arms, they should be first taught to 
lisp the name of God who created them, the name of Jesus 
Christ who redeemed them, and the name of His blessed 
Mother w T ho is so powerful in interceding for them. 
Fathers and mothers, that little soul which you now bear 
about with you, that little soul has been bought at a great 
price. It was purchased by the blood of Christ, it is an 
angel as yet in His sight, the bright spirits which crowd 
around see reflected within its little bosom the image of 
their God and rejoice. Do you love it dearly? Love it 
as did the great Origen, the little Leonidas Origen. It 
21 321 



XXXI. SERMON. 

is told of that great man, that great philosopher, that he 
would go to the little bed where his child slept, and baring 
its little bosom he would kiss it most respectfully, saying 
that as yet it was the sanctuary of the Holy Ghost. Love 
it as Jesus Christ loves it. You may form some estimate 
of His love for it, from the manner in which he loved 
little children while on this world ; He loved them for He 
saw in them the picture of His own innocence. We are 
told in the Gospel that on one occasion when mothers 
were bringing their children to Him to bless them, they 
came in such numbers that the Apostles rebuked those 
who brought them, and Jesus seeing it was much dis- 
pleased, and said to them : " Suffer the little children to 
come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the 
kingdom of heaven. Amen. I say to you: whosoever 
shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall 
not enter into it." And embracing them and laying His 
hand upon them He blessed them. And again from the 
Gospel we may learn how He loved them, from the ter- 
rible malediction which He pronounced against those who 
would scandalize them, who would lead them into sin. 
His Disciples came to Him asking : " Who thinkest thou 
is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven ? " And Jesus, 
beckoning to a little child to come to Him, set Him in 
their midst and said: "Amen. I say unto you, un- 
less you become converted and become as little children 
you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. And he 
that shall receive one such little one in my name, receiveth 
me. But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones, 
that believe in me, it were better for him that a mill-stone 
were hanged around his neck, and that he were drowned 
in the depths of the sea." Home then, within your own 
dwellings and while it is yet tender, the child must be in- 
structed. Certainly if you but realize the dignity of that 
child, if you but realize the great love that God bears to- 
wards you, you will guard it with a jealous care and turn 
aside from its innocent soul all that would injure it, 

322 



THE DUTIES OF PARENTS. 

But the child gradually grows up, what then are your 
duties towards it ? In the first place, you owe it a good 
Christian education, and in the second place you are bound 
to show it a good example. The great Lacordaire begins 
one of his conferences by stating this incontrovertible fact. 
Man, a being, is subject to instruction and when he would 
prove it to the audience w T hich surrounds him, he said to 
them : " Why have I undertaken to address you in this 
place ? If I look around me I perceive signs of all ages, 
hairs which have become white in the watchings of learn- 
ing, features which bear traces of the fatigue of combats, 
others which are animated by the sweet memories of lit- 
erary study, of young men also who have just plucked the 
third flower of life. Tell me, you who are assembled here, 
what do you ask of me, what do you desire from me ? The 
truth ? You have it not then within you. You seek it, 
you are come here to be taught." Do w T hat we will while 
in this world, no matter what we are, or who we may be, 
we are always influenced, are always being instructed. 
And if this be the case with the old in every step of their 
lives how much more is it true with reference to children 
who are subject to the influences surrounding them. They 
must naturally subject themselves to instruction, they 
therefore look to parents, those who are set over them by 
God, as guardians of His trust for the education and in- 
struction they are to receive. 

He looks to you and society demands that you give your 
child a Christian education. Try and understand the full 
meaning of that word. It is an education that gives us 
a knowledge not only of the sciences, but above all in- 
cludes the science of sciences the knowledge of God, and 
of our duties towards Him. An education that does not 
alone address itself to the mind, but cultivates the heart, 
that develops the entire moral being of the man. An 
education founded not upon the shifting notions and 
opinions of men but established upon the basis of faith. 
And in order that you may understand your calling in 

323 



XXXI. SERMON. 

this regard, try to comprehend the greatness of your work. 
The child is born into the world helpless, God in His in- 
finite wisdom has entrusted him to you, we might say im- 
perfectly formed; he is without strength, feeble, it cannot 
make known to you its wants, it knows nothing of its sur- 
roundings, its faculties are undeveloped. You are then 
called upon to perform that which we might call a divine 
work; called upon to continue the work which God in His 
greatness and His power has not completed. 

He might, had He wished, have sent that new born baby 
into this world possessed of all its powers, with its tongue 
loosened, with its mind active, with the power of its soul 
fully developed, but He has not done so. He entrusted 
that to you, as the one who will call forth into life and into 
action that mind which was made to know its creator, 
and will which was made to love Him and to bow down 
in obedience to His law and to His commandments. 

You might be likened in your position to an enthusi- 
astic amateur of Art, who had by chance hit upon a work 
of the old Masters, a work which had been hidden for 
centuries. In what manner would that young artist re- 
ceive that piece, how delicately he would handle it, with 
what care would he remove the earth crusted upon it, he 
would try to conceive the idea of the genius which de- 
signed and if possible would reproduce it and set it before 
the world. 

Now the parent is very like that artist, he receives the 
picture and the likeness of God upon the soul of the child, 
for He knows that it possesses a mind and a will, which 
distinguish it from the brute creation, and makes it like 
to God. The parent knows it to be a masterpiece of God's 
work, and He should therefore see that it be not marred, 
that it be not soiled by sin, but that it be led to know God 
and to love Him. And yet is it not a sad and strange 
fact, that there are Catholic parents who never seem to 
fully realize this truth, who never think of giving their 
child a Christian education. Within the past week ; you 

324 



THE DUTIES OF PARENTS. 

might have read in one of our Catholic Journals of an in- 
cident that occurred in one of the New England States. 
In one of the high schools of the state, a teacher lately- 
asked how many could repeat the ten commandments, but 
four hands went up, of whom one was an Episcopalian, 
the other three Catholics. This sounds very much like 
exaggeration, for we can hardly conceive how parents have 
so forgotten their duties as not to see that their children, 
after knowing that they were created by God, would be- 
come at least acquainted with His ten commandments. 
But no it is not a piece of exaggeration. 

Another duty that the parent owes the child is that of 
good example; that is to say, if they wish their children 
to lead good lives, it is not sufficient to instruct them, and 
tell them what a good life is, but they themselves must 
first live up to the standard. If they are faithful to the 
commandments of God and the commandments of the 
Church, then their children will be likewise faithful. 
And let us thank God that there are many such families 
in our midst, the parents of which may say to their chil- 
dren as St. Paul said to the faithful of his time : " Be ye 
imitators of me, as I am of Jesus Christ," families who 
seem to have begun their heaven upon earth. But on the 
other hand, how many parents may be condemned for the 
example that they are giving their children, parents wiio 
stay from Mass on a Sunday, and spend it riotously, 
parents who seldom or never go to their confession and 
communion. We condemn with the inspired writer, the 
pagan parents who immolated their children in honor of 
the demon. But is it not true that we have to lament the 
same fact in our own day ? Here they are not sacrificed as 
they were by the pagans, they are not placed upon the 
burning pile and there consumed, but are their souls not 
sacrificed? How many are brought up in habits of idle- 
ness, spend their time foolishly, carelessly; how many 
whose mothers connive at their going to places dangerous 
for youth, mothers whose hands deck them for the sacri- 

325 



XXXI. SERMON. 

fice. Surely these are the Christian mothers to whom we 
might well address the words of St. Paul, and say that 
they have denied the faith and are worse than infidels. 
But what of those mothers who outrage the dignity of 
human nature by their oaths and blasphemies, and who 
make their children the daily witness of their irreligion 
and indifference. What of those fathers who come into 
their homes drunk and quarreling, spending the shilling 
and the dollar that should be given for bread within the 
family. What of those homes wherein there is nothing 
but dissension and discontent Sunday after Sunday. Oh 
unfortunate parents, your treatment carries with it its 
chastisement, you are now scattering the seed in the hearts 
of your children, and you may expect to reap the fruit 
even in this present life, you may expect to see them imi- 
tate you, even to surpass you in your irreligion and im- 
piety. And far from being your consolation, your hope 
and your joy, you may expect to see them afflict you with 
sorrow and bring upon you shame and disgrace. 

You have sacrificed them to the demon, he has whis- 
pered in tempting tone, that they may do as their parents, 
and they have faithfully copied your example and you 
may say with Jeremias, when he wept over the ruins of 
Jerusalem, " The joy of our heart is ceased. The 
crown is fallen from our head, woe to us because we have 
sinned." But more than all, Christian parents, how will 
you appear on the last day, w T hen you will have to con- 
front that child, when it will rise up in judgment against 
you. Let us turn from this sight to those who bring up 
their children in the love and fear of God, parents who 
have been the guardians of their children, who during life 
were blessed with happiness, who in death left after them 
in the world children who might pray for them and think 
of them, as they shed honor upon them, who in the life 
to come will meet their children as their recompense, their 
glory, their imperishable crown. Let me exhort you then 
in conclusion, you who are bringing up children, you like- 

326 *' 



THE DUTIES OP PARENTS. 

wise who may be placed in some position over them, let 
me exhort you one and all to be faithful to your mission, 
to regard each child that is placed under you, as one called 
to the possession and the happiness of heaven. Love them 
as Christ loved them, and you must be true to them. And 
if there be any who have heretofore been remiss in the 
performance of these duties, let me exhort them to begin 
to undo the evil which they may have done, and resolve 
to be careful in the discharge of their duties in the future. 
And if perchance there be some poor soul suffering 
whose child may have wandered astray, though the 
parents may have done all they could for their children, 
in the days of their youth, let me bid them pray for their 
conversion and be filled with hope. For if you have im- 
parted good lessons to them in their youth, rest assured 
the world can never pluck them from the heart and from 
the conscience ; and though they may now seem to be 
lost in the excitement and pleasure of the w T orld, still the 
day will come, the hour of affliction when they will bear 
fruit and like another Monica you will have reason to 
rejoice and you may say in words of the father of the 
prodigal : " Let us rejoice and be glad for this my child 
was dead and is come to life again, he was lost and is 
found." 



327- 



XXXII. SERMON. 
PURGATORY. 



" I am forgotten as one dead from the heart. 11 " And they 
that passed by me have not said : the blessing of the Lord be 
upon you.' 11 



A learned divine commenting on these words of the in- 
spired Psalmist applies them to the departed dead. They 
may be remembered by their works, spoken of by their 
friends, praised even at times by their enemies, and per- 
haps their name may have found a place on the chiseled 
monument ; nay even in the pages of history. All the 
grandeur and glory that earth in its power could shed 
about the grave has been bestowed, and still, sad spectacle, 
they are forgotten, dead from the heart ; friends and rela- 
tives visit their cemeteries, w T alk about their graves, gaze 
at and admire the cold marble pointing heavenwards, a si- 
lent sentinel of hope, read the inscription, pass on through 
the low, seemingly neglected mounds, commenting on the 
poverty of their possessors, and so on out into the busy 
world again where all is life and action, without having 
once invoked a blessing or offered a prayer in the secret of 
their hearts for the repose of those poor souls who com- 
plainingly cry out : " And they that passed by me have 
not said: the blessing of the Lord be upon you." 

Hence we wish to set before you the consoling dogma of 
Catholic faith that there is a place of purgation for souls 
who depart from this life stained by sins that are not mor- 

328 



PURGATORY. 

tal and consequently do not merit the pain of eternal loss. 
We shall then examine the nature of the punishment suf- 
fered therein and draw two very natural conclusions. The 
one of avoiding even all deliberate venial sin w 7 hich w r ould 
subject us to such punishment, and the other to do all in 
our power, or at least something to aid those who are at 
present suffering and sighing to be united to their God. 

The belief in the existence of Purgatory is a dogma of 
Catholic faith grounded on Scripture and Tradition, and 
reasonable to every thinking mind. St. Paul writing to 
the Corinthians and treating of the dignity of the hu- 
man soul, says: that it becomes the temple of God Him- 
self in Baptism by the reception of faith. He tells the 
faithful to be careful in perfecting this great building 
for they are the co-operators, co-laborers with Christ in 
raising; this structure whose foundation God Himself has 
laid. Let them see to it therefore that their works are in 
keeping with that faith which is given them, for if they 
be subversive of that faith, " destructive to that temple of 
God raised in their souls," then God will destroy them for 
His temple is holy. But if on the contrary their actions 
confirm, strengthen and increase the good work begun in 
them, they may look for a reward ; for their work is last- 
ing and merits everlasting happiness. But since there 
are others again w^ho neither destroy nor perfect the good 
work begun in them, and rather imperfectly co-operate 
with the workings of grace in their hearts, these, says the 
same Apostle, shall suffer loss, " but they themselves shall 
be saved yet so as by fire." Could w r e wish for proofs 
more conclusive ? Could words be more explicit ? Here 
certainly we have the express mention of a place of reward 
or heaven,, of a place of destruction or hell, of a place of 
purgation or purgatory. 

Again we see from the express testimony of St. Matthew 
to confound those who would cast ridicule on this truth ; we 
have the express testimony of Christ who, when speaking 
of the blasphemy of the Spirit, say : " And whosoever 

329 



XXXII. SERMON. 

shall speak a word against the Son of Man it shall be for- 
given him, but he that shall speak against the Holy Ghost 
it shall not be forgiven him neither in this life nor in the 
next." Mark these last words: it shall not be forgiven 
him in this life nor in the life to come. Why speaks He 
of forgiveness in the next world if there be only heaven 
and hell ? For in the one there is nothing sinful and con- 
sequently no need of forgiveness ; while in the other there 
is no forgiveness, for out of hell there is no redemption. 

Again Our Blessed Lord mentions a prison and place 
of punishment out of which souls shall be delivered, but 
not before the last farthing has been paid. " Amen I say 
to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay 
the last farthing ; " and this place of punishment accord- 
ing to St. Jerome cannot be understood of any other than 
of purgatory from which the souls will not be liberated 
until cleansed from the slightest blemish. In the Old Testa- 
ment we have another striking passage. It is related in 
the book of Machabees that Judas, " the brave commander, 
made a collection and sent twelve thousand drachmas of 
silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins 
of the dead; thinking well and religiously concerning the 
resurrection. For if he had not hoped that they that were 
dead should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous 
and vain to pray for the dead. It is therefore a holy and 
a wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may 
be loosed from their sins." We are aware that this book 
is not received by those who differ from us, as scriptural ; 
but they must grant that its authenticity as a book of his- 
tory is as strongly established as any other of the Old 
Testament. They must therefore admit that it may be 
consulted as a book of reference, that we may learn from 
it the customs of the Jews. It proves therefore that at 
the time of the Machabees, the popular conviction was that 
when prayers were offered for the dead they were beneficial 
to them, and that it was a holy and a wholesome thought 
to pray for the dead. We have then the belief and prao- 

330 



PURGATORY. 

tice of the Jewish Church in testimony of our doctrine. 
They were as we know the chosen people of God, and surely 
He would not have allowed them to fall into error in that 
respect without attempting to recall them through the aid 
of His prophets as He did on so many other occasions. 
Then again when Christ came upon the earth, when He 
came to fulfill the law as He said Himself we do not find 
Him at all inveighing against this doctrine. In no place 
in the New Testament is He found condemning it as He 
did so many other corruptions that had passed into their 
law through the Pharisees. Nay we have found Him con- 
firming it by express testimony from the New Testament, 
and His Church throughout all ages has ever taught the 
same doctrine. Can we then suppose that our Blessed 
Lord would have allowed so grievous an error to have 
passed among His chosen people in the Old dispensation, 
and in the New dispensation, if it be true that Christ came 
upon this earth, instituted a Church as a means of salva- 
tion, told the ministers of the Church to go out in the 
broad world and teach all that He had commanded. If 
all this be true can we for a moment suppose that His de- 
signs were frustrated by men and that His Church has 
been a blundering institution from the very beginning? 
Where is the man that would dare to assert it? 

But you object that such was not the teaching of the 
Church from her beginning. It was a matter that crept 
in after centuries. Well, then, let us appeal to tradition 
and ringing throughout every age and every part of the 
known world where Christianitv has established its sover- 
eignty, its voice speaks in trumpet tones through the 
Fathers and Doctors of the early Church, testifying to her 
teaching and the constant and unshaken belief of her un- 
erring children. Thus Tertullian in the second century 
exhorts the wife who survives her husband : " to pray for 
his soul, solicit for him refreshment, and offer on the anni- 
versary of his death ; " " and again Tradition/' says he, 
" asserts itself as the author, custom affirms, and faith 

331 



XXXII. SERMON. 

observes the practice of making oblations for the dead." 
Here in the second century we have Tertullian appealing 
to a tradition and custom which must have been Apostolic 
and asserting the existence of a faith pre-eminently practi- 
cal. The sainted Bishop of Hippo, Augustine, that great 
doctor of the Western Church in the fourth century, tells 
us that notwithstanding the objections of the Heretics (for 
remember in those days the Church as ever had her 
enemies) that the custom of praying for the dead was most 
ancient in the Church. And again when speaking of his 
own practice : " I pray for the dead that when they are 
in eternal glory they may not neglect praying for me." 
But there is a most striking incident narrated in the life 
of this saint which shows the belief of his time. You are 
all acquainted with his life, you have heard of the tears 
that were shed by his poor mother, in order that she might 
reclaim her wayward son. Heart-sick and foot-sore she 
followed that erring boy through all his wanderings and 
never ceased to pray for him ; by her constant entreaties 
his conversion was obtained, and she was heard to say: 
" Son, there is nothing now in this life that affords me 
any delight. The only thing I desired to live for was that 
I might see you a Catholic and a child of heaven. God 
has done much more; in that I see you now despising all 
earthly felicity and entirely devoted to His service as a 
Priest of His Church. " Yes, Augustine, the child of tear- 
ful prayers, had been converted and had consecrated the 
rest of his clays to the service of God's altar. Some time 
after, Monica took sick, and one day being worse than 
ordinarily she swooned away and was for a little while in- 
sensible. Her two sons ran to her. When she came to 
herself, awakening as it were out of a profound sleep she 
said to them : " Here you shall bury your mother," and 
Navigius remarked that she should be laid by the side of 
her husband; but she checked him saying: " Lay this 
body anywhere ; be not concerned about that, the only 
thing I ask of you both is that you make remembrance of 

332 



PURGATORY. 

me at the altar of the Lord wheresoever you are." And 
that sainted son, that learned bishop prays in his confes- 
sion : " Let her therefore rest in peace, and do thou, O 
Lord, my God, inspire thy servants, my brethren, thy chil- 
dren, my masters, whom I serve with my voice and my 
heart, and my writings; that as many as shall read this 
may remember at thy altar thy handmaid, Monica, with 
Patricius, her husband." 

And no less striking are the words of St. Ambrose in 
his funeral oration on the great Theodosius : " I loved 
him, therefore I follow him into the country of the living. 
Neither will I forsake him till by tears and prayers I shall 
bring the man whither his merits call him unto the holy 
mountain of the Lord." And again speaking of the em- 
perors Valentinian and Gratian, " No duty shall pass 
you over in silence, no prayer of mine shall ever be closed 
without remembering you, no night shall pass you over 
without some vows of my supplication, you shall have a 
share in all my sacrifices ; if I forget you let my own right 
hand be forgotten." 

If the practice of praying for the dead were not common 
in those days would not such w r ords have shocked an au- 
dience ; would they not have asked whence comes this new 
doctrine, and especially would they not ask that question 
when they saw their emperor Constantine the Great buried 
in the porch of the Church of the Apostles that he might 
enjoy the communication of the Holy prayers, the mystical 
sacrifice and the divine ceremonies ? Such then are a few 
of the many testimonies that the voice of tradition offers 
for the past. 

Nor are we satisfied in asserting that only since the com- 
ing of Christ has the truth of a middle state been univer- 
sally believed. But we will go further and assert that for 
ages before, this belief was common to the people of the 
earth ; nay, that it appears to be coeval with the fall. For, 
if not, how are we to explain the passages of Pagan writers 
and Philosophers, Their ideas regarding such a state 

333 



XXXII. SERMON. 

were extravagant and foolish if you will; but still you 
must of necessity deduce one of two conclusions from their 
works. Either that natural instinct asserted the existence 
of such a place, or that these different peoples bore about 
without them the relics of a universal tradition. 

With regard to the nature of the punishments suffered 
by those holy souls the Church has defined nothing. But 
still her holy Doctors eminent for their learning and the 
sanctity of their lives do not hesitate to maintain that their 
sufferings are beyond conception. The fire of purgatory 
is more severe than any punishment that can be felt or 
imagined in this world. St. Thomas teaches us that the 
same fire torments the damned in hell and the just in 
purgatory, and with a little reflection we can in some man- 
ner understand why God should so punish us. Consider 
the enormity of sin, it aims at destroying God Himself 
and consequently must be hateful in His sight ; remember 
the punishment inflicted in this life on account of sin even 
after the guilt of the sin has been remitted. Behold the 
punishment of David, of Moses, and conjure up if you can 
the sad effects of that first sin in the garden of Eden. 

Imagine the sufferings of earth, the slow wasting of 
famine, the reeling of a fevered brain, the untimely death 
struggle with its train of sorrows, the longings of a soul 
wishing to be separated from this valley of pains and ills, 
the anxious expectations of the martyrs abiding the time 
of their death, their innumerable modes of torture, and you 
have but a faint picture according to those lights of Holy 
Church, of the sensible agonies of those poor souls. 

But what are all these compared with the separation 
from God, their last end. Made for His glory and to His 
likeness, they tend to Him by a necessity of their nature 
from the moment of their creation and are never happy 
until they see and enjoy Him in eternity. Like the arrow 
winged from the bow of the huntsman, and seeking its 
destination, or the stone cast in mid-air and descending to 
the earth in virtue of the physical law of attraction, or 

334 



PURGATORY. 

again like the many rivers seeking to be swallowed up in 
the ocean, so also do these poor souls freed from the tram- 
mels of the body fly in virtue of a natural law of necessity 
to the bosom of God, and seek to be engulfed in that ocean 
of Infinite Being. How deplorable then their exile, how 
pitiable their separation ; they seek God, but He flies from 
them, they approach Him, but He withdraws from them ; 
they petition, but He rejects them, " in the hardness of 
His heart He is against them/' for thence they cannot go 
" until they have paid the last farthing." 

To these sufferings, the pain of sense and the pain of 
loss, we may add still another. There is no man so miser- 
able on the earth as not to be able in some manner to free 
himself from the punishments imposed on account of his 
crimes. He may flee from his country, retire to foreign 
parts and be none the less happy. If he does not wish to 
have recourse to these means he may have his friends to 
intercede for him, the individual chosen to condemn him 
may be bribed or he again may throw himself upon the 
clemency of his judge and thus obtain for himself a lesser 
penalty ; at all events in one way or another by fair means 
or foul he will obtain entire pardon or at least a change of 
sentence. But not so before that great Judge of nations ; 
there is no escaping His justice, there is no fleeing from 
His sight ; " for whither," says the Psalmist, " shall I flee 
from thy face. If I ascend into the heavens thou art there, 
if I descend into hell thou art present." 

There is no asking for respite, for the time for us will 
then have passed ; no clemency to be expected, for the reign 
of eternal justice and it alone has begun. The time of 
mercy has passed. True our friends might intercede, 
might do much to obtain our release ; but Oh ! the forget- 
fulness of friends. If we were to pass through this con- 
gregation how many would ,we find who have not lost some 
dear one, a kind mother, a fond father who has wasted his 
years in looking after your interests, a gentle sister, an 
affectionate wife, a loving brother, a tender husband ? And 

335 



XXXII. SERMON. 

now where is the memory of them ? Like a play at which 
we were present we have seen these characters rise before 
us and pass away, and with their absence from our sight 
came the forgetfulness of our memory. But a few weeks 
or days after their death the tear would have started to the 
eye and the sob of grief would have choked our utterance 
only at the bare recital of their names. Well indeed might 
they reproach us with the words of Job : " My kinsmen 
have forgotten me, and they that knew me have forgotten 
me. They who now dwell in my house think of me as a 
stranger, and I have become an alien in their eyes. * * * 
They that were some time my counsellors have abhorred 
me, and he whom I loved most is turned against me. 
* * * Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least 
you, my friends, for the hand of the Lord hath touched 
me." Like the ungrateful minister of King Pharao we 
are unmindful of those in prison, they call upon us to re- 
member them while it is well with us, and to remind the 
king when Ave kneel before him that his children are in 
prison, but blinded by the false glitter of gold, the poor 
father and mother who ask us as a last request to remember 
them, are forgotten and banished from the mind; in fact 
we have not time, it would interfere with our worldly 
business to be taken up with them. If this be the practical 
conclusion of those we are to leave after us in this world, 
there is contained within it a lesson for us that should sink 
deeply in the mind and hearts of all ; and pray God that 
it may ever remain there indelibly impressed. Reflect 
upon the pains of those confined spirits; learn therefore 
how to avoid those sorrows ; let your time of purgation be 
while upon the earth ; forestall by your own acts of volun- 
tary penance the justice of God which shall surely come 
upon us when the time of mercy has passed. Conceive an 
abhorrence for sin in the future, and do penance for the 
past. To us all there comes during our life a time of sor- 
row, a time of sickness, a time of want. Ah! these are 
the golden moments, bear up with them and pray God in 

336 



PURGATORY. 

His mercy to receive them as so many acts of atonement 
for your past sins. 

A second time, we would ask you to reflect upon those 
pains, and then learn to do something for those poor souls. 
Until now perhaps we have given them scarcely a thought \ 
what then shall we do for them ? Is there one present who 
will not offer a prayer for them ? Nay more, is there one 
who will not make some effort to be present on the Feast of 
All Souls, at the holy sacrifice of the Mass, to join in 
prayer with the universal Church in sending up her suf- 
frages for those poor souls ? And remember, that this is 
a duty, remember that there may be souls there who are 
suffering on your account. When you pray then, pene- 
trate in spirit their abode, and ask God to pity them, ask 
Him through the merits of His Divine Son, who suffered 
for them, to spare them ; make use of the many indulgences 
which the Church holds out to you, daily indulgences at- 
tached to prayers and communions, and especially at the 
time of Holy Communion, when our Lord Himself is 
within you; pray earnestly, pray devoutly, for your rela- 
tives and friends, and then as a last means and the most 
powerful, we would recommend to you the Holy Sacrifice 
of the Mass. Here upon our altars let the victim of Cal- 
vary be again raised and offered to His Heavenly Father. 
Here let His blood be again mystically shed, and without 
doubt drops of that precious blood will penetrate that dun- 
geon, cleansing and purifying the soul; as of old, Christ, 
after His death on the Cross descended into and liberated 
from limbo the holy souls confined therein. 

And now, in conclusion, we call forth your admiration 
for your Holy Mother Church in giving this holy truth, a 
truth well worthy of heaven and of a divine religion, and 
surely in harmony with the nature and the feelings of man- 
kind. Nature abhors and reason recoils from a doctrine 
that tells us that the bond of affection which unites Chris- 
tian souls is broken by death and swallowed up in the cold- 
ness and darkness of the grave. All Saints Day with joy- 
22 337 



XXXII. SERMON. 

ous song and decked in white garments the Church comes 
before us and asks us to rejoice with her happy children in 
heaven ; while on All Souls Day the soft peals of her organ 
will be given to the deep solemn dirge, and her priest will 
enter upon the sacrifice with the sad Requiem aternum 
dona eis Dominie ! Give them rest, O Lord, and let per- 
petual light shine upon them ! Is not this a picture worthy 
of our admiration and love, to see the Church Militant 
putting up her prayers to God for the Church suffering 
in Purgatory. 

Is it not consoling to think that when we depart from 
this life we shall leave after us faithful children, faithful 
Christians, and a faithful Priesthood; who, on the recur- 
rence of this feast as it comes round, will meet at God's 
altar to pray for our repose. Will he who mocks at our 
religion destroy this doctrine and rob us of this hope ? No ! 
for it is a truth that is enthroned in the heart, and in spite 
of perverted reason it is idolized by nature and often brings 
even the unbeliever to his knees at the side of his dying 
friend and wrests from him an unconscious prayer for 
mercy. 



338 



XXXIII. SEEMON. 
THE SECOND ARTICLE OF THE CREED. 



14 And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord" 



We come to treat of the second article of the Apostles' 
creed, whereby we profess Jesus Christ to be the true and 
only Son of God, and our Lord and Saviour. When man 
disobeyed God and fell into sin, he was deprived of the 
graces and gifts that Almighty God had bestowed upon 
him. He was deprived of the gifts of knowledge, his mind 
became clouded, and he could no longer understand things 
so clearly as he could before he was deprived of the great 
gift of integrity, whereby his passions were controlled by 
his reason. The inferior part of man's nature asserted 
itself, a war began ; but too often the superior part of man's 
nature was to become the slave of his evil passions and de- 
sires, he was deprived of the gift of immortality ; his body 
became subject to decay, and it was decreed that one day 
he must die. Man was thus deprived of sanctifying grace 
and the other great gifts of God, whereby he was most 
pleasing in the Creator's sight; he became a creature dis- 
figured and malformed in the sight of God, worthy of His 
wrath and justice rather than of His mercy and His good- 
ness. Such was the state of man after his fall; just the 
contrary of what he was when created. 

What was to become of him ? Was he to be lost with 

339 



XXXIII. SERMON. 

the whole human family that was to be horn from him? 
Was there no way of regaining God's friendship and the 
gifts which he had forfeited ? Apparently there was no 
way left ; for, of himself he could do nothing. You 
know full well that when an injury is done a person, we do 
not consider the offence as we do the person to whom it is 
offered ; in other words, if we wish to estimate the gravity 
of an offence, we must consider against whom it was com- 
mitted ; what station in life does the person fill, is he a slave 
or is he a monarch, is he a worthless wretch, or is he a man 
that is worthy of respect and esteem from his fellow man ? 
If he be of the latter class the offence offered is great ; if 
he be a man in high standing then the offence is greater. 
Thus for example : if you were to strike an equal you create 
but little scandal and your offence would be considered but 
a slight one, but if you were to walk into a court and strike 
a justice upon his bench whilst expounding the law, your 
offence would be an unpardonable one, and your name 
would be known far and wide as a man that had no respect 
for law. In the one case you might sue for pardon, you 
might come before your equal and tell him that you were 
sorry for the injury you had done him, and if he saw fit 
he might promise you never to think of it more. Whereas, 
in the latter case, you could not go to the justice ; you might 
have others to sue for you, those who would be on more of 
an equality with him, but even then you might not expect 
pardon or forgiveness; for, in his capacity of judge and 
so acting, he is the highest expression of law and order, 
and therefore he would be acting justly in not listening to 
your excuse and in punishing you for the offence com- 
mitted. 

Now, when we come to consider the fault of our first 
parents, we must apply the same principle. We shall find 
there two parties : God offended by man the offender ; we 
will find a being who alone is great, a being existing from 
all eternity, endowed with all perfections, one without an 
equal, one perfectly happy in Himself and by Himself. We 

340 



THE SECOND ARTICLE OF THE CREED. 

will find Him in His goodness and in His mercy calling 
man into existence, giving him a world for his dwelling, 
making him the master who is to rule over the fishes of the 
sea, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the air, endow- 
ing his soul with an intelligence and will ; thus making 
him like to Himself, a little less than the angels, and 
greater than all other created things ; filling his soul with 
a grace, to which if he remained faithful, he would have 
never known the horrors and ills that flesh is now heir to, 
would have never known death ; he would never have been 
the slave of error and the child of passion. Scarcely has 
He given existence to that creature and loaded him with 
all these favors, when that creature turns upon his Master, 
the highest possible expression of law itself and disobeys 
Him: will not subject himself to Him, and proclaims his 
independence. How can man make the proper atonement ? 
"He has committed an offence against an infinite God, his 
offence is infinite. Can he not call upon some one else to 
make reparation, can he not call upon the angels ? No ! 
for they though greater than he, yet like himself are finite, 
are creatures, and in consequence cannot atone for him. 
Can he not call upon some one who is equal to God ? No ! 
for God alone has no equal. What therefore is he to ex- 
pect ; he has separated himself from God, he can never ex- 
pect to bridge over the mighty chasm which parts him 
from his Creator. If he considers the angels, he will find 
a like offence punished by an eternal separation from God. 
What therefore, can be expected but a like punishment, if 
justice must take its course. 

But is there not a way in which justice and mercy may 
meet ? Is there not a way wherein justice may be vin- 
dicated, whereby a proper atonement may be made to God, 
and whereby the descendants of Adam yet unborn may ex- 
perience the great goodness and mercy of God even as 
Adam himself did; some way of giving his children an 
opportunity of saving their souls. Cannot some plan be 
conceived whereby God's justice may have a trial^ given 

341 



XXXIII. SERMON. 

them even as their parents had? Yes the mind of God 
conceived the plan which would never dare enter into the 
mind of angel or of man ; the Second Person of the Blessed 
Trinity would become man. In him justice and mercy 
would meet, would embrace, kiss each other and be recon- 
ciled. The human race descended from Adam were to 
carry their own souls in their own hands ; they would have 
the opportunity given them of attaining the glory of heaven 
which Adam had lost for them by his sin of disobedience. 
'No sooner had man fallen than sweet words of promise were 
given by God Himself, and hope springs up in the breast ; 
chasing away the clouds of despair that must have settled 
down over the whole human race. A Redeemer was prom- 
ised who would be at the same time God and man; he 
would be equal to God for he was God ; he would be equal 
to man for he was man, he would sue for our pardon and 
his action would be the action of the God-man and would 
be infinite in value, thus it would appease the justice of 
God, whilst at the same time the mercy of God would shine 
forth in the great act of self-annihilation whereby he took 
upon himself our poor human nature. 

Opening the book of Genesis we will read of the fall of 
our first parents. Scarcely had the sin been committed 
when the voice of God is heard in the garden of Eden say- 
ing to the serpent : " Because thou hast done this thing 
thou art cursed among all cattle and beasts of the earth. " 
* * * I will put enmities between thee and the 
woman, and thy seed and her seed, and she shall crush thy 
head and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel." As though 
he would have said : you have attacked the first woman and 
have vanquished her, but I will raise another who will be 
invincible, I will raise up another who will be your enemy 
and who will wage against you a continual war, and with 
what effect ? She shall crush thy head ; she shall crush 
and destroy the empire. You boast of having conquered 
mankind, of having closed Heaven and opened the abyss of 
bell, but you will be deceived, for through this woman there 

342 



THE SECOND ARTICLE OF THE CREED. 

shall arise one who shall overcome you, who shall regain 
for man his innocence; one who will regain for him his 
lost rights to heaven. Such was the first promise offered 
by Almighty God, and man immediately began to avail 
himself of it. Hope sprang up ; a religion was established 
upon the earth, man if he would be saved, must be saved 
through faith in a Redeemer that was to come. Cain and 
Abel began with their sacrifices; the one offering to God 
the produce of the field, the other offering to God the fat- 
lings of his flock, thus proving to the world the truth of 
this text though it might be denied, viz: that it contained 
the promise of a future Messiah. For if not, why did 
they offer sacrifice ? Was it not a religious act ? And 
why would they perform this religious act unless they 
hoped in the mercy of God ? And why should they hope 
unless Almighty God had promised to rescue them. 

Time went on, men multiplied upon the earth, they for- 
got God, then came the deluge as a punishment, and the 
human family with the exception of a few persons were 
wiped out of existence. Noah and his family came from 
the ark to offer sacrifice to God. They have preserved the 
virtue of hope, for they are aware of the promise; the 
world is again peopled, men multiplied, and again they 
fall into error and idolatry ; God resolves to choose a people 
of His own who will remain faithful to Him. He calls 
Abraham, the first patriarch and father of the Hebrew 
race, and He tells him that he is destined to be the father 
of a great race, that in him all the nations of the earth are 
to be blessed, a son is born to him, Isaac, and he is asked to 
sacrifice that son. He does not delay; he is on the point 
of offering up the victim, when He is told to lay not His 
hand upon the boy. " By my own self have I sworn saith 
the Lord, because thou hast done this thing and hast not 
spared thy only begotten son for my sake, I will bless thee, 
and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of Heaven, and 
as the sand that is by the sea-shore * * * and in thy 
seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." How 

343 



XXXIII. SERMON. 

were they to be blessed? Blessed by having their great 
want supplied, blessed by having a Redeemer born to them 
through the race of Abraham. Abraham passed out of the 
world, his son Isaac remained, and the same word, the 
same promise that was made to Abraham was repeated. 
We read that a famine came upon the land, and the Lord 
appeared to Isaac and said : " Go not down into Egypt but 
stay in the land that I shall tell thee, and sojourn in it and 
I will be with thee -* * * and I will multiply thy 
seed like the stars of heaven. * * * In thy seed shall all 
the nations of the earth be blessed." Isaac has two sons 
Jacob and Esau. From which of these two is that great 
blessing to come ? Erom which of these is the Redeemer 
to be born? Listen and God again will tell us. The 
aged Isaac is dying, and he calls his son Jacob to him' and 
blesses him; he tells him to journey to * * * and to 
take there a wife from the daughters of Laban his uncle, 
and he prays that Almighty God may bless him and give 
him the blessings promised to Abraham. * - * * He 
sets out upon his journey, the day is declining, the sun is 
sinking in the west and he looks for rest, he takes a stone 
and places it under his head and is soon asleep. Behold 
while he sleeps he sees a ladder standing upon the earth 
with its top reaching into Heaven ; and there, the angels 
ascending and descending from its summit, he hears a voice 
saying to him : " I am the Lord God of Abraham thy 
Father, and the God of Isaac. The land wherein thou 
sleepest I will give to thee and to thy seed, and thy seed 
shall be as the dust of the earth, thou shalt spread abroad 
to the west, and to the north, and to the south, and in thee 
and thy seed all tribes of the earth shall be blessed." 

The time came for Jacob to pass out of this world ; his 
twelve sons were brought to him, he blesses them separately, 
and when he came to Juda he says to him : " Juda, thee 
shall thy brethren praise, thy hand shall be on the necks 
of thy enemies, the sons of thy Father shall bow down to 
thee; the sceptre shall not be taken from Juda, nor a ruler 

344 



THE SECOND ARTICLE OF THE CREED. 

from his thigh, till He come that is to be sent and He shall 
be the expectation of nations.'' Behold again the same 
promise. From Juda was to come the Redeemer, the ex- 
pectation of nations. And the tribe of Juda would lose 
its supremacy as it did under the Romans. Then it was 
that the Jews lost their power in the world and were scat- 
tered abroad over the face of the earth, and then it was that 
the Saviour of the world appeared among men. But not 
only had God spoken to men and promised a Messiah but 
through his prophets He even kept the same truth before 
His chosen people. It would be too long a task to review 
the different prophecies ; one or two of them we may take 
however to show how this truth was kept alive among the 
people, and the truth upon which their religion was 
founded. In the ninth chapter of Daniel we read that 
the prophet makes known to his people, the Jews, that a 
time has been determined upon for their destruction as a 
nation and people; he tells them that the time is seventy 
weeks of years which is four hundred and ninety years. 
After that period of time they were to be no more, and the 
saint of saints, that is the Messiah, would come. Then 
entering more into detail He tells them, that from the 
time in which Artaxerxes would command the temple to 
be rebuilt to the time of Christ, there would be a period of 
sixty-nine weeks of years or four hundred and eighty-three 
years ; and that after a period of sixty-two weeks of years 
Christ would be slain and a people would come, evidently 
the Romans, who were to destroy the city and the sanctuary. 
Now need we say that all this has been fulfilled to the 
letter ? Need we say that the Jews exist no longer as a 
nation ; that the sceptre has passed from the tribe of Juda, 
that their city was laid desolate, and their sanctuary des- 
troyed, that " abomination of desolation" was seen in their 
temple ? 

And if we can say all this, as we can from historical 
teaching, why may we not likewise say that the Messiah 

345 



XXXIII. SERMON. 

has come; that the Saint of Saints, the Christ, has ap- 
peared in this world ? 

Again, opening the prophecies of Malachias, we find the 
Jews sorrowing and complaining after they had rebuilt 
their temple. They no longer beheld the magnificent tem- 
ple of Solomon, with its gorgeous ornaments ; they had a 
temple, but a poor one in comparison with the one raised 
by the wisest and greatest of rulers. But God sends these 
prophets to console them, and to tell them that this temple 
that they had built though far inferior in its architectural 
beauty and riches, still would be greater ; for He who had 
been promised, the desired of nations should enter it. 
And so, were we to run over the other prophecies, we would 
find them testifying to the advent of a Messias who was to 
be born of a virgin. Nay, they give the place of His birth : 
tell of His poverty, and His flight into Egypt ; of the adora- 
tion of the kings; of His miracles in giving sight to the 
blind and hearing to the deaf, and speech to the dumb. 
They tell of His entry into Jerusalem, of the treason of 
His disciples, of His ignominious death and of His glori- 
ous resurrection; writing hundreds of years before the 
coming of Christ as though they had seen Him, dwelt with 
Him, and viewed His many miracles, His death and resur- 
rection. Oh! how secure we should rest in our religion 
when we behold this grand spectacle, when we take up the 
books of the Old Testament, books that have been preserved 
for us and written for us by our enemies ; when we take up 
these books and prove from them, that the promise made 
by God in the garden of Eden has been fulfilled, and that 
Christ our Lord the Messias is really with us. 

Where could we or how could we obtain a greater proof 
of the divinity of our religion. We find ourselves one in 
faith with our first parents, with the patriarchs and pro- 
phets who lived some thousands of years before the coming 
of Christ, linked in faith, for they had to believe, in order 
to be saved, in the Messias that had been promised and was 
to come. We believe in that same Jesus Christ the Mes- 

346 



THE SECOND ARTICLE OF THE CREED. 

sias who had come, and in whom all that had been foretold 
is fulfilled. Surely our feelings should be those of thank- 
fulness and gratitude to God who has been pleased to be- 
stow upon us this gift of faith. We should thank Him 
that we have not been left in the region of darkness and 
shadow of death ; that He has been pleased to call us to a 
knowledge of the truth and at the same time we should pray 
that the light of faith may descend into other hearts who 
have not been pleased to receive it. It is not hidden but 
placed on high, steadily shining, in order that men may 
see it ; it is a city placed upon a mountain that all may be- 
hold it, but yet men in their forgetfulness, and lost as they 
are in the cares and business of the world, will not take 
time to reflect upon it. Let us pray for those benighted 
souls and ask HIM who came to save the world to strike 
their minds with its brilliancy and its beauty. 

In the second place, let us not only be thankful that we 
received that gift ourselves, and pray that others may re- 
ceive it; but let us show ourselves to the world what we 
profess ourselves to be in the creed, real believers in Jesus 
Christ. To be real believers in Him we must not only 
believe in His existence and in His divinity, but we must 
believe in Him and in His doctrines. We cannot believe 
in Christ and disbelieve His truths; we must believe in 
Him as God, and as the teacher who came from Heaven 
to show us the way to eternal life. He is the truth, and 
therefore we must believe in His doctrines ; otherwise we 
do not believe in Him. But how are we to find His truths. 
Among that people, and among the people who succeed the 
Jewish race in the possession of the Redeemer, viz: 
amongst the Christian Catholics. We have reviewed the 
many promises made by Almighty God that a Messias was 
to come; we have heard the signs that were given of His 
coming by the prophets, and we have seen those signs ful- 
filled in Jesus Christ ; and as we proceed further we shall 
see on next Sunday evening that He who came proved Him- 
self to be the Messias, the promised Saviour of the World. 

347 



XXXIII. SERMON. 

We know that His chosen people, the Jews, have rejected 
Him, do not receive Him as the Messias, and even that was 
foretold by their prophets. We know that the Catholic 
world claimed Him, for it saw in Him the fulfillment of 
all the signs that God had been pleased to give mankind 
with regard to His coming. Therefore we are to believe 
what the Catholic world, which is the Catholic Church, 
teaches of Him, for she alone of all the professed religious 
creeds that we find in our day, she alone of them all, stood 
at His cradle, listened to His words, saw Him when He 
arose from the dead, and heard from His divine lips in the 
persons of His Apostles : " Go and teach all nations what- 
soever I have commanded you, and behold I am with you 
all days even to the consummation of the world." I am 
with you not unnecessarily, I am speaking through you 
and by you to the world; not in contradictory language 
to-day declaring that you believe in this, and to-morrow 
that you believe in something else, but ever teaching the 
same truth and preserving you from error. Here is where 
we shall find the truths of Christ : in the Catholic Church, 
for she alone to-day is the only one who can bear witness ; 
for she alone looked into His sweet eyes and heard the 
words of wisdom that fell from His divine lips. Act then 
upon her teachings and you will act upon the teachings of 
Christ Himself, and thus you will show to the world that 
you are what you profess yourselves to be, believers and 
followers of Jesus Christ, TEUE CHEISTIANS. 






343 



XXXIV. SERMON. 
THE DIGNITY OF A CHRISTIAN. 



" For of His own will He hath begotten 
us by the word of truth" 

James i. 18. 



The most marvellous piece of work that passed from the 
hands of God when creating the universe, was Man. 
Gifted with a mind that could penetrate nature's mys- 
teries, and with a will that no created power could subdue, 
which even God Himself respected, he passed into this 
world the King and Ruler of all that surrounded him ; the 
model after which he was formed was no less than the God- 
head. Other beings had been created during the succes- 
sive periods in which all things were made, but of none of 
them was it said that they were made after the image and 
likeness of God. That honor, that dignity, was preserved 
for man alone, and when he sprang into existence at the 
call of his Maker, he bore upon his soul the impress of 
Divinity. Creation presents us with nothing greater than 
man, but yet upon this world there is a work which sur- 
passes man as created, a work that transcends creation. It 
is the man who is a Christian, the man who has been re- 
generated in the blood of Christ, the man who bears in 
his heart the beauty and graces of the Holy Spirit ; the 
man whom Christ Himself hath begotten in the word of 
truth. This masterpiece of grace, the Christian man's 
dignity, is what we would speak of to-day, in order that 

349 



XXXIV. SERMON. 

we may properly appreciate the mercy of God in calling 
us to be followers of His Divine Son, and at the same time 
rise to a true sense of our duty as Christians, living in the 
midst of a cold, indifferent and unbelieving world. 

The admiration and the esteem of men may be won in 
many ways, but he who claims for himself illustrious birth, 
who proves beyond contradiction that he is a man of knowl- 
edge, and who shows in his daily actions, despite the 
charges that malice may bring against him, that he is a 
man of integrity and virtue ; that man will always retain 
the respect and the veneration of mankind. Men illustri- 
ous by birth, by knowledge, and faithful in the practice 
of virtue, stand like mighty oaks in the dark deep forest ; 
stand like pyramids in the desert, towering aloft, charm- 
ing the eye of the spectator with their magnificence. True 
it is, that there are very few who can lay claim to the triple 
nobility of birth, genius and virtue. One alone, the true 
Christian, can appropriate them all. He alone is noble 
by birth, he alone possesses the highest knowledge, he alone 
is virtuous above all others. By birth he is a child of 
heaven, of God, and of the Church. He is, according to 
the expression of a great Saint, a " heavenly plant whose 
roots are fixed in heaven. " The sweet name of Father, 
so full of affection and of tenderness, can only be given 
by God to the Christian. All other things which were 
created may praise and bless God by acting in conform- 
ity with the laws which govern them. The heavens may 
tell His glory, earth with its variety of creatures may pro- 
claim His greatness, the ocean with its sullen roar and the 
variety of life which it bears within its mighty bosom 
may declare His majesty. All, even the savages who wan- 
der through the forest, may each in his own tongue, sing 
His praises, but His child by preference, the privileged 
child of His tenderness, the child who is the inheritor of 
His happiness and of His glory, is the Christian. He 
alone can raise his eyes toward heaven and call Him by the 
name of Father, for he alone is the child of God. 

350 



THE DIGNITY OF A. CHRISTIAN. 

Men, in this world, are seen pointing to their ancestry 
with legitimate pride; some there are who glory in being 
the descendants of a man who founded empires ; some there 
are who boast of being descended from the liberator of a 
people ; others there are who tell of the victories achieved 
by some hero of their family. Rising above the family, 
we find others who speak of the proud history of their 
nation, they tell us of men who sacrificed their lives for 
their country ; they tell us of names which are destined to 
be immortal. They tell us of heroes made famous by 
their deeds of valor ; but we might say to him who thus 
speaks of the historic greatness of his country ; seek among 
your heroes for him who has shed the most glory upon you, 
seek amidst your royal families for the line which did 
most service to the people ; seek among you for him who 
has made you famous in the field of letters, seek among 
your men of science for him who has benefitted the world 
at large; still can the Christian say to you: What are 
the titles you claim, what are the honors you expect, what 
is the reward you look for, when compared with the title 
and the dignity of a Child of God ? What are they all 
compared to the man whom Christ hath begotten in the 
word of truth ? Well indeed did the father of the unfor- 
tunate Louis XVI understand this truth when he ordered 
the baptismal registry of the Church to be brought to him. 
He called his children about him, and running over the 
names which were contained in the book, he said to them : 
" Behold we are all of the same condition before God. 
Here your names are inscribed and mixed with a host of 
others, all Christians as you are. Here all are equal, all 
are brothers ; be ever mindful of it and remember that the 
title of Christian is the greatest you can possess." 

Yes, we are all equal in the sight of God, all equally 
His children ; children of one large family that covers the 
earth, hence it is that we should learn always to respect 
our fellow men. The poor ignorant beggar who stands 
with hand extended on our street corners, the innocent 

351 



XXXIV. SERMON. 

faced child dressed in rags who passes through our busy 
thoroughfares unnoticed and uncared for, the poor cripple 
whom we pass with a look of disdain as a sight shocking 
to our refined feelings bears a title more noble than that 
given by the kings of earth; for he is baptized. He is 
admitted into the Christian army where he has Saints for 
brethren and God Himself for a Father. What a consol- 
ing thought to the unfortunate and the unhappy is the con- 
viction that God is their Father ; it should be sufficient to 
console them at once. To the sick and the infirm does not 
this thought come to remind them to be patient in suffering 
the ills which God has been pleased to send ? He is a 
Father who is but chastening them for the reward of a life 
in glory which they are to live in the everlasting hereafter. 
Yes, to all who suffer, to all who complain, to you, dear 
Christians, who are fighting daily with the enemy of your 
souls, we would say with St. Cyprian : " When tempta- 
tion surrounds you on every side, and when the flesh rises 
in rebellion against you, answer thus the tempting voice: 
'I am the child of God and consequently cannot obey my 
corrupt inclinations.' " Again, when the world throws open 
her gates of pleasure and puts before your gaze riches and 
honors; tell that world that you are a child of God, and 
cannot barter the riches, pleasures, and joys of heaven for 
the riches, pleasures and joys of earth. Again, when the 
tempter seeks to seduce you, tell him in Christian language 
that you are a child of God and cannot become a slave of 
Satan ! 

The Christian man is likewise a child of the Church, 
he has for a Mother she who stood as the guardian of 
society for centuries ; she who counts her children by mill- 
ions; she who alone can answer his many doubts and tell 
of his birthright and of his destiny. With the Church as 
his Mother upon earth, he is introduced to the largest of 
families; he is introduced to an army of martyrs whose 
bodies are crimsoned with the blood that they shed for their 
faith; he is introduced to an array of Doctors who stand 

352 



THE DIGNITY OF A CHRISTIAN. 

like lights in the midst of a sea of errors, illumining the 
way which ignorance would shroud in its Egyptian dark- 
ness. He is introduced to a host of Virgins, clothed with 
garments that betoken their purity, while their chaste 
hearts reflect the purity of Christ, their leader. He is 
introduced to a line of Confessors and Pontiffs who stand 
like a wall of brass about him, beating back the waves of 
infidelity which w T ould engulf the world. Looking at his 
altars, whether they be erected in magnificent temple or 
poor dwelling, his mind can recall a line of Saints offering 
up for centuries the unspotted Lamb ; gazing at the pulpit, 
his fancy may conjure up thousands who have stood in it 
giving the word of life to men of all classes and conditions. 
Such is the ancestry of a child of the Church, such the 
ancestry of a Christian man. Surrounded by this glor- 
ious cortege he passes through the world and journeys on 
sure of his footing, for he walks upon a path that has been 
beaten for centuries ! 

The Church, his Mother, venerable in her sanctity and 
venerable in her age, has seen generations come and go; 
she met them in their infancy with her blessing, sustained 
them through life, and gave them her parting benediction 
as they passed away. To-day she stands ready to perform 
the same kind office of parent for the individual soul which 
she met at the cradle. She will not part from it until she 
places it safe again in the hands of its Maker. 

The Christian is noble by birth ; we shall find that he is 
likewise endowed with a nobility of intelligence. Admit- 
ting revealed truths, he has no doubts ; for him all is cer- 
tain, possessing an historic account of the highest antiquity, 
in the relation given by Moses in the Book of Genesis, he 
is made acquainted with his origin and with his destiny. 
He is told of truths which modern science with all its pro- 
gress has been unable to overthrow. In the book of Job 
and in the Epistles of St. Paul he receives a philosophy 
which is divine in its conception ; while in the books of 
Proverbs and of Wisdom he finds a complete code of mor- 
23 353 



XXXIV. SERMON. 

ality, and if he seeks for legislation, he will find laws 
transmitted by God to the creature; the Ten Command- 
ments, upon which every legislator endeavors to build his 
system of laws. Take up the sciences of the world, the 
natural sciences as they are called ; you will find that they 
are making many discoveries which benefit the human race ; 
but, could not the intelligence of men be better engaged? 
True, we must admire the man who can measure the dis- 
tance to the planets, who makes us acquainted with na- 
ture's laws, who discovers the properties of matter and 
opens the many mysteries of nature to us; but, must we 
not still more admire the man who explains the marvellous 
workings of the soul, who tells us what we ourselves are, 
whence we came, and whither we are going. These are 
the highest and most important questions which could be 
proposed to the human mind, and he who offers their solu- 
tion possesses the highest knowledge. We ask Pagan an- 
tiquity for their solution, and Tertullian replies that the 
disciples of Plato believed that God took care of everything 
which was on the earth. In other words Plato admitted the 
Providence of God, but the followers of Epicurus main- 
tained that God did not interest Himself in the affairs of 
men ; in other words they did not admit the Providence of 
God. The Stoics were no more able to give an answer. 
He tells us moreover that the famous Diogenes was asked 
whether he knew what passed in heaven ; he answered that 
it had not been shown him what appeared there; being 
questioned still further whether or not there were Gods 
there he replied : All that I know is that it would be very 
expedient if there were. 'No other answers could they 
offer to these important questions ; doubt, uncertainty and 
contradiction ever obtained when they sought to answer 
questions of their origin, nature or destiny. In vain, too, 
will you seek for their solution from the wise men of mod- 
ern times. If you enter the anti-Christian schools, they 
will tell you that we cannot pierce the veil that surrounds 
us. Theories are advanced to-day and abandoned to-mor- 

354 



THE DIGNITY OF A CHRISTIAN. 

row, and so we find ourselves in a maze of contradiction. 
They tell us that we should resign ourselves to live in a 
state of doubt, for they with all their science cannot solve 
the mystery of the past and the future. 

What the scientists acknowledge they are not able to do, 
and what the Pagan world with all its knowledge could 
not accomplish, the Christian child, who can barely spell 
out the words of its Catechism, can answer. The Chris- 
tian, be he ever so illiterate, is wiser than the philosopher 
of Pagan times if he but know his faith ! The young child 
with his Catechism is wiser by far than those who passed 
for men of genius in Greece and Rome ; for that child pos- 
sesses the knowledge of its origin, the knowledge of its 
duties towards God and its neighbor, the knowledge of its 
sublime faith ; a knowledge that was unknown for centuries 
to the wisest children of the world. We are then truly the 
light of the world, as proved by the words of our Divine 
Saviour; for we carry about with us a knowledge of our 
destiny, a knowledge which explains the mysteries of the 
world, which makes us realize our true position, as pil- 
grims journeying to a distant home. Preserve then this 
precious inheritance which we have received from the ages 
of faith ; preserve it to transmit it to our children ; it is 
a duty which we owe to the past, and a .duty for which 
future generations shall thank us. 

This nobility of birth which we claim for ourselves as 
Christians, and our possession of the highest knowledge, 
would avail us but little if we were not virtuous. The 
man who is of illustrious parentage and who is versed in 
the sciences, is but small if his soul and his heart be not 
adorned with virtue. On the other hand a man may be 
of humble birth, and of little knowledge ; still, if he be a 
virtuous man, the world must needs admire him. jSTow 
the Christian is the only virtuous man we can find upon 
the earth. We speak of the man who is a true Christian, 
for the mere profession of being a Christian does not make 
us virtuous, of a man who shows by the manner of his life, 

355 



XXXIV. SERMON. 

that he is a Child of God ; that man is virtuous. Need we 
now wonder that this should be so; for, realizing that he 
is a child of Heaven he acts in a manner becoming that 
position; realizing that he is a child of the Church, the 
representative of God, he hears and obeys its voice. Full 
well he knows that her whole aim, her whole scope, her 
whole object in this world is to sanctify man and save his 
soul ; to this end tend all her teachings, to this end tend all 
her Sacraments, to this end tends the labor of those who 
have consecrated themselves to carry out the mission of 
Christ upon the heart. Nor is there a power upon earth 
that can dispute with the Church her right to be alone 
styled holy. Surely Paganism with its vices and shame- 
ful customs, would not attempt it. The infidelity that is 
abroad would not dare, for virtue could never be the legiti- 
mate consequence of unbelief. Nor can the sects, so numer- 
ous, for they are branches lopped from the vine, and in con- 
sequence dying for want of nourishment. So to us alone 
who are Christians, who are followers of Jesus Christ, to 
us alone belongs the glory of being holy. We alone can 
show to the world Saints for every day in the year, we 
alone can boast of lives that ought to be imitated. Every 
age as it passed by saw Saints arise in the Church, saw 
souls turning aside from the world seeking to serve God in 
quiet and peace ; saw souls who remained in the world and 
followed out the duties of their religion and were raised 
by the grace of God to the sanctity of Saints. Hence we 
may show them to the world, and need not fear to raise 
them upon pedestals in our churches and tell the faithful : 
a Behold the models of virtue that you must imitate. " 

Never will the world be able to reproach us as we may 
well reproach it. It can never say that we did not produce 
virtuous men, it cannot say that our religion was not the 
source of virtue. It can find no virtue that is not to be 
found in the Church. If it seeks for the virtue of Chas- 
tity, legions of holy souls present themselves following the 
Lamb whithersoever He goeth. If it asks for humility, 

356 



THE DIGNITY OF A CHRISTIAN. 

again legions arise who have trampled under foot the 
honors which the world would shower upon them. If it 
asks for the virtue of Charity, that sublime virtue which 
demands the love of God and the love of our neighbor ; the 
missionary straying through foreign lands, seeking for the 
conversion of souls, the man who has left home and friends 
and closets himself in the sickly hospital ward, alleviating 
the sorrows of the distressed, come before us as pictures of 
that heaven-born virtue Charity. Nay more, if you would 
still seek for virtue we could tell you of Saints with whom 
you associate daily, Saints who when they have departed 
from this world, their names perhaps will never be known ; 
but yet they are pious souls, Saints of God whose names 
though not registered on earth, yet live with us in the world, 
who at times are troubled with its cares, and who at times 
are surely tempted by its promises, but following out the 
grace of God endeavor to live up to the duties of their 
station. There are children blessed with such parents, 
and parents blessed with such children. And these holy 
families who might be said to be the wheat which is spoken 
of in the Gospel, spring up and flourish besicle families 
who might be likened to the tares; families whose every 
hour is spent in dissension, and who can never meet to- 
gether without strife. 

Herein then lies the dignity of the Christian soul. It 
is a child of God and of the Church, it is a child of knowl- 
edge ; it is a child of virtue. But how is it that when we 
look out upon the world among men who style themselves 
Christians and Catholics, who know full well the dignity 
of their position, and are aware that they possess a knowl- 
edge of their destiny ; how is it that there are men who do 
not possess this third characteristic virtue. You will find 
that they are not all ignorant men, that there are men 
among them of professed ability, men cold and calculat- 
ing in their disposition, men whose example if it were 
followed would prove the perversion of Christianity. The 
answer is a very simple one, they practically ignore Christ. 

357 



XXXIV. SERMON. 

Theoretically, for them Christ and His Church present a 
beautiful reality, one in fact that the world could not do 
without; but for them Christ's teachings are to "be heard, 
not to be followed. Examine them still closer and you 
will find that they may be reduced to two classes. The 
first is the indifferent class; they are men who perhaps 
pass through life without committing an injury against 
their neighbor, men who admit that they ought to do bet- 
ter, who are aware that they should hear Mass on Sun- 
days. Men who know that they should be found frequent- 
ing the Sacraments of the Altar; but who on account of 
some strange fascination of the world allow themselves to 
be borne thoughtlessly away from doing what is positively 
right and proper as Christians. This is a very numerous 
class, and if they but examine the lives they lead they will 
find that if their example were followed it would prove 
the destruction of Christ's kingdom upon earth. To this 
might well be added a class who with justice bear the title 
of drunkard, whose Church on Sunday is the bar-room, and 
whose devotion is lavished on the cup. This class we may 
reject as unworthy of the name of Christian, for they are 
a disgrace both to themselves and to their Church. 

There is a second class who are more thoughtful, an in- 
telligent class who know that Christ established a Church 
in this world of which they are members. Yet this 
class of men, moving every day in the world, whose lives 
if they were what they should be, would be a power telling 
upon their neighbors; these men seem to forget that 
they have duties in common with Christians and Catholics. 
Now how are we to account for this ? It is very simple ; 
pride is at the bottom of it, and as pride led to the rejec- 
tion of God in that proud spirit Lucifer, so does the pride 
of such men lead them practically to the rejection of 
Christ. They are men who profess to know of Christ, 
men who profess to know of His Church and to admit its 
right of making laws which they should follow; as it is 
Christ's representative on earth; but, singular to relate, 

358 



THE DIGNITY OF A CHRISTIAN. 

when the precepts of the Church are made known they 
seem to assume the right to modify them, to make them 
square with their individual idea of what they should be. 
Thus for instance as in the Paschal Season, when the 
Church reminds them of her command that the faithful 
are obliged under pain of sin and separation from her, to 
confess their sins and to receive the Eucharist, they listen 
and heed it not, for their idea seems to be that they know 
their duty better, and will perform it at the proper time. 
These are the men whom the Church should fear, for they 
are often men of good standing in society, they profess to 
be within her bosom, but the example which they give their 
brethren is one which would reduce her teaching to mere 
words. If there be any who may count themselves in 
either of these classes, let them reflect upon their duties 
as Christians; for if their dignity and state be so great, 
surely the duties that attach to it must be all-important. 
Take then, Christian souls, children of God, brothers and 
co-heirs of Christ, take then the generous resolve of be- 
coming Christians indeed. The resolve of becoming real 
Apostles of Christ, Apostles by your example, Apostles by 
your prayers, Apostles by the consolation which your char- 
ity will offer to the distressed, Apostles by passing through 
this world as did Christ ; for remember that you are as St. 
Peter says : " A chosen generation, a royal family, a 
holy nation, a purchased people." 



359 



XXXV. SERMON. 
THE LOVE OF GOD. 



" That Christ may divell by faith in your hearts; that being 
rooted and founded in charity, you may be able to comprehend 
with all the saints ivhat is the breadth, and length, and height 
and depth ; to knoiv also the charity of Christ which surpasses 
all knowledge that you may be filled unto all the fullness of 
God. 

Eph. m. 17. 



How simple yet how beautiful is this position of St. 
Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians ! At the time of writing 
it he was lying in prison on account of certain false ac- 
cusations brought against him by the envious Jews. He 
wrote to console the Ephesians whom he had lately con- 
verted, to ask them to glory in his sufferings which re- 
dounded to the honor of Christ, and at the same time tells 
them that he prays to Christ for them that He may dwell 
in their hearts and thus make them comprehend with all 
the Saints, what is the breadth, and length, and height, 
and depth of the love of God in procuring our Redemp- 
tion. 

To understand the love of God for us, and to return 
that love, is the lifelong duty of a Christian on this earth. 
" Love God all thy life and call upon Him for thy salva- 
tion," says Ecclesiastes, and in these few words, my 
friends, we have the epitome of the lives of all good men 
from the creation of the world to the present day. In 
them the great duty, the grand aim of life, is clearly de- 
fined and mapped out for all who have yet to tread this 

360 



THE LOVE OE GOD. 

valley of trial and tribulation. No sooner had man sprung 
from the hand of his Creator than the world began to 
sing the praises of the Lord, and the passing breeze whis- 
pered as it went : " Love thy God all the days of thy 
life." 

This is the end for which all mankind was made. St. 
Augustine says : " God made us, and our hearts will be 
always restless until they repose in Him who is the only 
amiable object that is able to satisfy our boundless desires 
and render us completely happy." And from these words 
of the Holy Doctor we may gather why it is that so many 
are miserable on this earth : they endeavor to attain their 
end in this world, which with its lawful enjoyments was 
given but as a means to an end. And how many do we 
find thus confounding the means with the end, and daily 
laboring after true happiness here below ? Some never 
look beyond the narrow span of life, and lay up to them- 
selves the pleasures of this life; whilst others, placing no 
restraint upon their passions and gratifying all their de- 
sires, dream away the few short years of this life, waking 
to find themselves repeating with the wise man: " Vanity 
of Vanities, and all is Vanity." 

God is to be loved by all His creatures, and what is 
there more just, more conformable to the dictates of right 
reason, than this duty ? We love an object on this earth 
on account of its perfection, and the greater the perfec- 
tion we find in that object the greater does our love be- 
come for it. Now where shall we find perfection itself? 
Ah ! If we but raise our minds to Heaven, and with the 
light of the Holy Spirit to guide our intelligence, pierce 
into eternity with the eyes of faith ; we shall find a being 
there than whom there is none more holy, than whom 
there is none more just, than whom there is none more 
happy. 

Self-existing and omnipotent, all wise and self-suffi- 
cient, he bears within himself an infinity of perfections. 
But why do we speak of the attributes of God, since no 

361 



XXXV. SERMON. 

mortal tongue can express, or mind conceive His perfec- 
tions. All that man can imagine or language depict is 
infinitely below what He is. If we tell you that He is 
not only great and powerful, but that He is greatness and 
power itself; if we tell you that He is not only holy and 
wise, just and merciful, but that He is sanctity and wis- 
dom, justice and mercy itself; if w T e tell you that He is 
eternal and that His knowledge is infinite, we speak but 
in the broken phraseology of a child, and I may well re- 
peat with the Prophet that : "I do not know how to 
speak." " But if our minds cannot conceive nor our 
tongues tell the adorable perfections of God, our hearts can 
love them," says St. Augustine. 

Represent to yourselves the grandeur of the world, pic- 
ture to yourselves all that can charm the senses or ravish 
the soul of man with delight, and all this you will find 
in God. " I admire," says St. Augustine, " the brilliancy 
of the sun, the fecundity of the earth, the vast expanse of 
ocean, the charming beauty of creatures, the majesty and 
pomp of kings, the power of the mighty, the eloquence of 
the orator, the subtility of the philosopher, but entering 
into myself I confess that none of these things is equal 
to God. He has infinitely more than can fill my heart 
or satiate my desires." 

And you, what do you love, if you do not love God ? 
Does the brilliancy of power attract you ? Are you fas- 
cinated with the dignities of this earth ? Who is greater 
than God ? Is He not the King of kings and the dispenser 
of nations ? A wish on His part, and the earth with all 
it can boast of disappears ! Are you charmed by the 
beauty of His creatures ? What beauty is there that can 
compare with Him who is the principle of beauty, of 
whom all the beauty of this world is but a ray. Is good- 
ness the object of your affections ? " There is no one good 
but God alone," says Holy Writ. All that is great, good 
or beautiful upon this earth is but a shadow of the good- 
ness and greatness of the Creator. Who then can refuse 

362 



THE LOVE OF GOD. 

to love Him ? Day after day reveals to us the imperfec- 
tions of our fellow-men; we see them enjoying the world's 
riches, but not possessing a spark of virtue. On others 
nature has been lavish of her beauty, but they are as 
whitened sepulchres ; others again are men of intelligence, 
men of genius, but deceit and worldly cunning mark their 
every action. And yet it is upon such beings that we 
spend our affections, beings that are but as dust and ashes 
in the sight of God, while he who is worthy of all our 
love is forgotten, or treated with coldness or indifference. 
Why is it that we are so forgetful ? It is because we have 
not put in practice that second question of our little Cat- 
echism which we learned in our youth ! It is because we 
have not learned to know God, or because we do not wish 
to know Him. 

Look about you and you will learn, as the Apostle says, 
from " the things that are visible the invisible perfec- 
tions of God." What an elevated idea does this world 
give us of Him, of His power, wisdom, and goodness. 
He it was who made this earth, fashioned the heavens, 
set the stars in their firmament, bade the wild ocean to 
serve the uses of men ; and all these call upon us to learn 
from them the perfections of their Maker that by know- 
ing Him we may love Him. But we have been deaf to 
this voice of nature and a second voice calls upon us to 
love our God, and that is : the remembrance of all that He 
has done for us. This is the second motive of our love. 

All of us were the objects of His eternal design. From 
all eternity He had thought of each and every one of us, 
and though an infinite distance separated Him from our- 
selves, still, by an act of pure goodness, He was pleased 
to send forth the decree : " Let us make man to our own 
image and likeness. Let him not be as the other animals, 
but like to us gifted with will and understanding: And 
let him rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of 
the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth." 
But, unhappy man, in his vanity he would become another 

363 



XXXV. SERMON. 

God, and thus fell; but still the love of infinite goodness 
was not exhausted. For our sake the eternally begotten 
Son of the Divine Father would assume humanity and 
raise us from our fallen state. For thirty-three years — 
mark it ! — the eternal God walked foot-sore amid the crea- 
tion of His hands. Could love do more ? Yes ! " Greater 
love than this hath no man than that he lay down his life 
for his fellow men." Yes ! He would manifest the great- 
ness of love, He would lay down His life to save us. For 
three long hours of agony the dying Jesus bleeds upon the 
cross. Three long hours of agony, and fallen man is again 
redeemed. Nineteen hundred years have passed by, and 
still, clown the sides of Calvary and on through those 
sacramental channels instituted by Christ flows the life 
blood of the Redeemer " unto the regeneration of souls 
and the sanctification of the spirit." Nineteen hundred 
years and still that same sacrifice is offered to His 
Heavenly Father. Nineteen hundred years and still that 
victim of love remains with fallen man — " for His delight 
is to be with men " — a prisoner in the chains of love. He 
would remain with us, He would not leave us orphans, 
that same love which brought Him from heaven bound 
Him to the tabernacles of men. 

If such then, be the love God bears towards us, what 
return of love are we to make ? Love as you know should 
be mutual. Our love then should be conformable to that 
of God for us, and in that God has loved us more than all 
the creations of His hands, so we on our part are to love 
Him more than all created beings. " Would you like to 
hear from me," says St. Bernard, " why God is to be loved, 
and how He is to be loved ? If so, I would tell you that 
He is to be loved because He is God, and the measure of 
loving Him is to love Him without measure." " Would 
you know how to acquire this love," says St. Theresa, " I 
would answer: by working and suffering patiently for 
God's sake whenever the occasion offers." " The love of 
God," says St. Gregory, " is never idle. If it refuse to 

364 



THE LOVE OF GOD. 

be active it is not love." And the reason is very plain: 
" for Love," our Lord says, is another fire. " I have 
come to cast fire upon the earth and what would I but 
that it be enkindled." As fire surmounts every obstacle 
and feeds upon whatever opposes it so also your love must 
withstand and surmount the trials and tribulations of life 
and grow strong in the conflict. 

Consider the great Apostle of the Gentiles. Though 
thrown into prison, bound with chains and threatened 
with death, he could still exclaim : " I am filled with 
comfort, I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribu- 
lations." And again: " Who then shall separate us from 
the love of Christ ? Shall tribulations, or distress, or 
famine, or danger, or persecution, or the sword? For I 
am sure, that neither death, nor life, nor Angels, nor prin- 
cipalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to 
come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall 
be able to separate us from the love of God which is in 
Jesus Christ our Lord ? " 

This is the declaration of the Apostle Paul. What are 
we to think ? Is he drawing an exaggerated picture of 
the love which we should entertain for God ? By no 
means ! He is simply stating the common duty of every 
Christian soul. Can we say with him : " What shall 
separate us from the love of God ? " 

If to-morrow persecution were to cover our fair land, 
and you were called upon to deny your faith or forego 
your w r ealth, how many of you would be prepared to say : 
" Away with worldly riches, they cannot separate me 
from the love of Christ." If some dear friend were con- 
demned to death and it lay within your power to save him 
by transgressing the laws of justice and of conscience, how 
many would exclaim: "I shall allow him to suffer, the 
transgressions of my conscience shall not separate me from 
the love of Christ." If you w T ere called upon to forsake 
the altars of your Holy Religion, how many would pre- 
fer the lingering death of the martyr sooner than be sep- 

365 



XXXV. SERMON. 

arated from the love of God? And if we cannot an- 
swer with St. Paul that none of these things shall separate 
us from the love of Christ, we have not yet learned to 
love God with that love which He demands. For the all- 
wise God, speaking to the Doctor who tempted him says,nay 
even gives the command : " Thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God, with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul 
and with thy whole mind. This is the first and greatest 
commandment." Behold, after all the favors, after all 
the blessings bestowed on us by so good a God, still we 
are to be commanded to love Him. 

" What am I," says the great Augustine, " that thou 
shouldst command me to love thee." How delightful is 
the command: " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God." 
Ah, Christian soul; understand from this that your 
heart, your affection, is worth more than you thought, 
since God Himself pursues you for your love. Bid fare- 
well to those deluding phantoms which have engaged your 
attention and give Him your whole mind, strength, and 
heart. He claims an undivided, a distinctive love, and 
He will reject our love unless it be such as marks the pre- 
eminence of His claims. It must be a love by preference, 
a love that will forego all honors, all treasures, aye, even 
father and mother for his sake. " And every one of you 
that doth not renounce all that he possesseth cannot be 
my Disciple." And again : " He that loveth Father and 
Mother more than me is not worthy of me." 

To love him with our whole soul, that is with all our 
faculties and powers, is the most sublime use to which 
we can put those heavenly gifts. We may exercise them 
in Faith and in Hope, but these are without form, with- 
out life, unless we have Charity. 

To love him with our whole strength, that is, to begin 
on earth that employment w r hich is to constitute our bliss 
for eternity: to do our utmost to advance towards the 
perfection of that divine nature. However great our 
progress we must still press onward, the infinite lies be- 

366 



THE LOVE OF GOD. 

fore us. Think, meditate, and ponder upon the divine 
perfections, and endeavor accordingly to the advice of St. 
Peter, " to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the 
Lord." Imitate St. Augustine who, says a writer of the 
day, often interrupted his studies or other occupations to 
lift his heart to God, and by some short and fervent ejacu- 
lation, to beseech the Holy Ghost to enlighten his under- 
standing that his heart might be inflamed with love. 
" Oh, grant me grace to know thee," did he frequently cry 
out in transports of devotion. " Grant me, dearest Lord, 
the grace to love thee, let me know thee, my Lord, and 
I will love thee, for the knowledge of thy perfections 
must necessarily call forth all the energy of my soul to 
adore, love and serve thee." 

But what more beautiful example than at the foot of 
the Cross. There love spoke by action, it was unable to 
manifest itself in words because of its greatness. 

On that day which forms the pivot of the world's his- 
tory, on that day when earth rocked, groaned, and showed 
signs of sorrow for its Creator, whose was that last linger- 
ing figure at the Cross? Her eyes fixed upon the dead 
cold face of her God, speak a love that language cannot 
utter. With sobs and sighs she follows the precious body 
to the tomb, then turns almost heart broken back to the 
city. But how often, think you, did she visit in thought 
that sacred precinct of the dead ? Sunday comes, and be- 
fore the neighboring hills are tinted with the sun's first 
rays, that same lone form steals along in srlence to the 
sepulchre of the dead. Weeping she stoops, and looks into 
the tomb. " And she saw two Angels in white sitting one 
at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus 
had laid." They say to her. " Woman why weepest 
thou ? " And she said, " Because they have taken away 
my Lord and I know not where they have laid him." When 
she had said these words she turned herself back and saw 
Jesus standing and she knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus 
said to her : " Woman why weepest thou, whom seekest 

367 



XXXV. SERMON. 

thou ? " She thinking that it was the gardener said to 
him : " Sir if thou hast taken him away, tell me where 
thou hast laid him and I will take him away." Here was 
love, anxious active love, a love that could not, would not 
rest without the possession of its object. Well indeed, 
Mary, didst thou deserve to hear : " Thy sins are forgiven 
thee," " many sins are forgiven her because she loved 
much." Would we perform like actions and receive like 
rewards ? Why do we not visit Him in the sepulchre of 
His love ? Day by day we coldly pass by His habitation. 
Why do we not enter and make some little offering, give 
Him our hearts, ask Him to bless the actions we are about 
to perform, and to receive them as so many small tokens of 
our love : offer Him the thoughts that go crowding through 
our brain and wish with the saints that we had the power 
to endow every leaf, every blade of grass, every grain of 
sand with a seraphic intelligence, in order that they might 
send forth continually their fervent acts of love. 

And for us, in conclusion, comes an important question. 
We have seen what the love of God is. It is a love of 
preference dictated by nature and reason and commanded 
by God Himself. We understand the motives that should 
govern us in this regard and hence for us arises this sol- 
emn question : 

Do we love God after the manner He commands ? How 
shall we solve this question ? How shall each one of us 
be certain that he loves God above all things and for His 
own sake ? God Himself has left us a solution of the prob- 
lem, listen to His all-wise reply : " He that hath my 
commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." 



368 



XXXVI. SERMON. 
THE TWO MASTERS. 



4 c No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the 
one and love the other, or he will hold to the one and despise 
the other, you cannot serve God and Mammon. 

Math. vi. 24. 



This short text of scripture contains a truth well 
worthy of our consideration. We are told of two spirits 
which exercise authority over us in this world; the one, 
God who has made man to love Him, and to serve Him, in 
this world, and to be happy with Him in that kingdom 
w T hieh He has promised to His true and faithful servant. 
The man who obeys his master is the devoted servant, the 
true Christian. 

The other master who exercises authority over us is 
the one which man himself has made, an idol set up by 
his own hands ; an idol which procures for his worshippers 
all that this world can offer, but brings upon him certain 
ruin and destruction in the next. This idol is money, 
and its servant is the idolater. 

In these two spirits we recognize the two masters, God 
and Mammon, who are spoken of in to-day's Gospel, and 
in their worshippers we recognize the Christian and the 
Idolater. The question which puts itself to us to-day is: 
are we Christians or are we Idolaters ? Do we love and 
serve God, or do we cling to the mammon of this earth 
as though Ave lived for no other end than to hoard up 
money and worship the riches and wealth of the world. Are 
we Christians, are we followers of Christ? Do we imi- 
24 369 



XXXVI. SERMON 

tate His life and seek to practise His virtues and mould 
ourselves after that sublime model who came from heaven 
to teach us by word and example and to make us co-heirs 
in His kingdom. 

This our first question is all-important, for if we can- 
not answer it in the affirmative we are Idolaters, worship- 
ping at some other shrine, and we need to be startled into 
a true sense of our duty ere the shades of life's evening 
fall upon us. To answer our question we have but to 
place our model before us, to study His life and His max- 
ims, with regard to the world, to place Him before us as 
a mirror in which we must see ourselves as we are; for 
no matter who we are or what we may be, before God we 
are what we are, no more. The world may have a very 
high opinion of us, may lavish its flattery in running com- 
ments : for that we are not a bit better in the sight of 
God : remember we are asking what we are in His sight. 
Are we Christians ? Taking the life of Christ and study- 
ing its maxims we find them directed against the life 
which the world would have us lead and the maxims it 
would have us follow; His very first act was a rebuke 
to the opinion of the world, which would have us be great, 
would prompt us to be without a rival ; yet when the sec- 
ond person of the Blessed Trinity sought to redeem man 
He did not come into this world as God alone, than whom 
there could be no greater; but by an act of sublime hu- 
mility He lowered Himself to man's estate, and the divin- 
ity of the Godhead stood before mortal eyes clothed with 
human flesh, His life while upon this world was a life of 
direct opposition to its maxims. The world would have 
us rich, esteemed of men; our ancestry, with family hon- 
ors and family escutcheon must be known for centuries, 
else we count for nothing in the great mass of humanity. 
But our Blessed Lord entering this world was to be born 
in such poverty that He could say of the thirty-three years 
He lived upon this world ; " The foxes have holes, and 
the birds of the air nests, but the Son of Man hath not 

370 



THE TWO MASTERS. 

whereon to lay his head." Men knew Him not. Hidden 
away as He was in the little town of Nazareth; His 
Mother was unknown to the w 7 orld, she was a matter of in- 
terest only to celestial choirs; while His foster-father St. 
Joseph labored and made his living by the sweat of his 
brow, the most ordinary of mechanics. So that men asked 
contemptuously when our Blessed Lord began His public 
life, Is not this the carpenter's son ? Again, the world 
would have us enjoy its pleasures, its ease and its life, 
for to-morrow we die. How far different the life of our 
Blessed Lord ! His first cry in the grotto of Bethlehem 
was a cry of suffering that found its last echo amid the 
rocks of Calvary. As a child He is driven from city to 
city by the impious Herod ; even through the years of ma- 
turity, throughout His public and private life, He knows 
nothing but suffering; He the God who provided for the 
birds of the air and clothed the fields with grass, even 
He often suffered from hunger and thirst. Especially do 
we see His bitter suffering in that terrible and bloody 
drama of the Cross. The world might have been redeemed 
at a lesser price than the blood of Christ, but yet He chose 
to suffer; from the crown of His head to the sole of His 
foot, there is no sound spot, the flesh torn by the scourges 
hangs in shreds, the head crowned with thorns is covered 
with blood, His hands, His feet, His gaping side alike 
pour out their saving torrent and He dies, crowning His 
life of sorrow with an intense agony of three long hours. 
Well indeed, might our consciences summon us to the 
foot of the cross and cry to us: Behold His life; His 
life of poverty, His life of suffering. Are you Christians, 
are you His followers ? Have we not given way to pride ? 
Have we not despised poverty ? Have we not longed after 
the pleasures of life immoderately ? Have we His spirit 
of humility, of poverty and of suffering; for if we have 
not we are not His, for the Apostle said ; " Those who 
have not the spirit of Christ are not His, are not Chris- 
tians, are not followers of Jesus." 

371 



XXXVI. SERMON. 

Not only by His life did Christ show His hatred for 
the worldly; for if we examine the New Testament we 
shall find that it abounds in texts censuring the lovers of 
the world. St. Paul asks : " For what participation hath 
justice with injustice, or what fellowship hath light with 
darkness ? " As though He would say : why will you en- 
deavor to serve the two Masters, you cannot compromise 
matters between them, they are opposed even as light is 
to darkness. And again the same Apostle says : " Christ 
gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from 
our present wicked world according to the will of God and 
our Father." As though he should say to you, did not 
Christ die in order that He might separate you from the 
world and make you like to Himself in such manner that 
you might say, though " I am in the world still I am not 
of it ? " St. John in his epistle tells the Christian of his 
day most emphatically : " Love not the world nor these 
things which are in the world, if any man love the world 
the charity of the Father is not in him." 

Christ Himself in most expressive words declares that 
He and his disciples are not of this world. " I have given 
them my Word, and the world hath hated them because 
they are not of the world as I also am not of the world." 
Nay more, if we would form an idea of Christ's hatred 
of the world we have but to examine the prayer that He 
offered to His Heavenly Father for His Apostles whom 
He was about to leave. The time of His passion was 
drawing nigh, His last discourse had been given to His 
disciples, and before parting with them He offered a 
prayer that they might be saved and preserved from the 
contamination of the world. He reminds His Heavenly 
Father that His mission is finished, that He has mani- 
fested the Father to those whom He had given Him, and 
that He therefore expects to be glorified by His Father. 
" I pray not for the world but for them whom thou hast 
given me because they are mine," and again without men- 
tioning that He pravs for the world, " And not for these 

372 



THE TWO MASTERS. 

only do I pray but for those also who through their word 
shall believe in me." 

Does not this give us an idea of Christ's hatred of the 
world ? It would seem as though it were excommuni- 
cated, cut off from all participation in His prayer. " I 
pray not for the world ; " that is to say foreseeing in His 
infinite wisdom, the many w 7 ho would hear of Him and 
would not believe in Him, seeing the number who would 
in countless ways abuse the precious blood, foreseeing 
those who would take sides with the world because its 
slaves and servants, though He had exhausted divine 
bounty itself in endeavoring to save them, foreseeing all 
this, He prays for His Disciples ; prays for those who be- 
lieve in Him and lead lives in accordance with their be- 
lief; prays for them who have corresponded to the graces 
received; prays for them but not for the world. Now, 
are we of this number, do we endeavor to compromise 
matters between Christ and the w T orld; to be Catholics 
in profession and not Catholics in practice ; to obey some 
of the laws of God while we are in the habit of breaking 
others ; to obey some of the precepts of the Church whilst 
we are continually infringing others ? Here is the ground 
upon which we have to examine ourselves. In Baptism 
we renounced the world, and we took sides with Christ ; 
but where/are we to-day? Let him who spends his Sun- 
day idly, caring little whether or no he assists at the Holy 
Sacrifice of the Mass, though he is bound to do so under 
pain of mortal sin ; let that one ask himself if he is not 
trying to establish the concord which St. Paul speaks of 
between Christ and Belial. Let him who deals unjustly 
with his fellow man, taking all advantage of him in mat- 
ters of business or otherwise; let him ask what his posi- 
tion is. Let the man who has contracted debts, debts 
whose payment he has deferred for years and years, 
though he has abundant means for cancelling them ; let 
that man ask himself in all sincerity: Am I practising 
the duties imposed upon me by my religion? Am I a 

373 ^ 



XXXVI. SERMON. 

Christian showing forth the justice of Christ ? Let us one 
and all examine ourselves and we shall find that we are 
more or less tainted by the world, wandering from the 
profession of being Christians, of being Christ's faithful 
upon this earth. 

And now, coming to our second question: Are we idol- 
aters ? Most of us may not practise the perfection of the 
law, none of us is perfect, we are but poor Christians at 
the best; but may there not be some of us who are serv- 
ing Mammon ? This word Mammon, we are told, is used 
of riches, so expressing it in the language of to-day we 
might say that we could not serve God and the riches of 
the world. You cannot serve God and the mighty dollar. 
Now does this mean that we are to despise wealth, are we 
not to seek for an honorable living? Yes, but we must 
do it with due regard to our fellow men. The rich alone 
do not kneel and worship at the shrine of Mammon ; the 
poor ,also may become the servants and slaves of wealth. 
We become servants of Mammon when we seek immoder- 
ately after the riches of the world. The poor man may es- 
cape this bondage, for he is poor in effect, poor by his con- 
dition ; still, the poor man may fall a victim to temptation ; 
he may not be content with his condition, he may be 
struggling for money as though it were the only thing to 
be sought after in this world, prepared to make use of any 
means lawful or unlawful to get possession of it. That 
man, though poor, in reality worships Mammon, and is 
entirely separated from God. But the rich more particu- 
larly fall an easy prey to this forgetfulness of God. 
Hence it is that we read such terrible condemnations of 
the rich throughout the Gospel. 

We read there that Jesus Christ Himself pronounced 
woes upon the rich : " Woe to you that are rich, for you 
have your consolation." Again we read of the rich young 
man w T ho comes to our Blessed Lord asking : " Good 
Master what shall I do that I may receive life everlast- 
ing ? " And Jesus answering, said to him : " Thou 

374 



THE TWO MASTERS. 

knowest the commandments; do not commit adultery, do 
not kill, do not steal, bear not false witness, do no fraud, 
honor thy father and thy mother." But he answering, 
said to Him : " Master, all these things have I observed 
from my youth." Jesus looking on him loved him, and 
said to him : " One thing is wanting unto thee, go sell 
whatever thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt 
have treasure in heaven, then come, follow me. But he 
went away sorrowful for he had great possessions, and 
Jesus looking round about said to His Disciples: How 
hardly shall they who have riches enter into the kingdom 
of God." We read that the Disciples were astonished at 
His words, they could not understand them ; we do not un- 
derstand them. They looked for an explanation. If this 
young man is to be lost who is to be saved ? Our Blessed 
Lord gives the explanation saying: " Children, how hard 
it is for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom 
of God." IsTot because they are rich will they be con- 
demned, not because they enjoy great possessions, but be- 
cause they trust in their riches, when they should trust 
in God. " It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye 
of a needle than for such as these to enter into the king- 
dom of heaven." Again we have another warning in 
the parable of the rich glutton. We are told in the Gos- 
pel of St. Luke of a certain rich man who was clothed in 
purple ; a certain beggar by the name of Lazarus lay at his 
gate full of sores which the dogs came and licked, asking 
to receive the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table, 
and we read that no one gave him assistance. It came 
to pass that the poor beggar died and was carried by an- 
gels into heaven. The rich man also died and was buried 
in hell ; lifting up his eyes when he was in torments he 
saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom, and he 
cried out : " Father Abraham, have mercy on me and 
send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in 
water to cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this 
flame." And Abraham said to him : " Son, remember 

375 



XXXVI. SERMON. 

that thou didst receive good things in thy lifetime and 
likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted and 
thou art tormented." Is not this a terrible warning for 
those who possess the riches of this life ? Riches are 
dangerous since they bring so heavy a penalty upon their 
possessor when they are misused. 

How then are the rich to use their wealth ? In the first 
place they must recognize the truth of the Psalmist's say- 
ing when he tells us : " If riches abound set not your 
hearts upon them." Realize in the first place that no 
matter what your wealth may be it cannot save you from 
the grave, the grave will close over you ; you must begone 
from this world and another life awaits you, one of hap- 
piness or one of misery ; consequently while here your 
first work is to save your soul, and to save your soul you 
must realize that whatever you have in this world is given 
you as a means whereby you may save it. God never 
blessed you with your wealth in order that it might be 
a drawback to your salvation, but He gave it to you, that 
you might use it for the benefit of your fellow man as 
well as for your own. You are His steward chosen and 
selected by Him to benefit those who are poorer than your- 
selves. You are to realize that riches w r ere made for you, 
not you for riches ; that like a dangerous weapon they are 
to be used skillfully else they may wound unto death. 

In the second place: those who possess the wealth of 
the world in abundance must be poor in affection, that is 
they must not set their hearts on worldly wealth, but 
must be ready to recognize at any moment God's supreme 
dominion over them and their riches; they must remem- 
ber that He may despoil them at any moment and they 
should be willing to abide by that decision and cry out 
with Job : " The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away ; 
blessed be His name forever." Eecognize in the poor 
the members of Jesus Christ, and thus you will show by 
your alms-giving that your heart is not centred entirely 
upon the goods of earth. Give cheerfully and abun- 

376 



THE TWO MASTERS. 

dantly; if you have but little, give at least a little, but 
give without ostentation and with a pure intention. Do 
not give in such a manner that the world may know what 
you give, for then you have your reward. Christ Him- 
self says : " When thou doest an almsdeed, sound not a 
trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogue 
and in the streets that they may be honored by men. 
Amen, I say to you that they have received their reward. 
And again, when thou doest an almsdeed let not thy left 
hand know what thy right hand doeth." And again, " let 
thy alms be in secret and thy Father who seeth in secret 
will repay thee." 

Give with a pure intention, for God's sake alone, if 
you would be rewarded. Do not be of those who give 
through mere compassion; the infidel is capable of com- 
passion and may give an alms through compassion; 
neither be ye of those who give to be seen by men to ob- 
tain praise for what they do, for to give with that inten- 
tion would be to give through personal vanity and pride. 
Above all do not be numbered among those who give 
through motives of false pride, who give because they are 
solicited by certain persons to give. Let your alms be 
real offerings of Charity, offerings given for the love of 
God, for St. Paul says : " If I should give my body to 
be burned and my goods to feed the poor, and have not 
charity, it profiteth me nothing." Let us examine our- 
selves upon this point; are we idolaters, do we worship 
Mammon ? Let those who are blessed with wealth ask 
themselves whether they have ever appreciated it at its 
proper value, as a thing they possess to-day and may be 
deprived of to-morrow, as a thing that may endanger the 
salvation of their souls or aid them in obtaining the hap- 
piness of heaven. Let them ask themselves whether they 
have given in proportion to their means, and with what 
motive they gave ? If like the widow who cast her mite 
into the treasury, you have given what you could afford, 
and with a pure motive, rest assured that your work 

377 



XXXVI. SERMON. 

though not seen by men will be registered in heaven and 
yon will have laid up a treasure for yourselves, not on 
earth " where the rust and the moth consume and where 
thieves break through and steal/' but you will lay them 
up in heaven where " neither the rust nor the moth doth 
consume, and where thieves do not break through and 
steal." 



378 



XXXVII. SERMON. 
NO COMPROMISE WITH THE WORLD. 



4 4 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who gathereth 
not with Me scatteveth." 

Math. xii. 30. 



When Christ walked about on this earth He told the 
people of His time one thing which it was impossible for 
them to do. He told them that they could not serve God 
and Mammon; that they could not follow Him and serve 
the world; but, strange to say, though Christ proclaimed 
that truth and showed by His life that He was entirely 
and wholly at enmity with the world and its ways ; though 
His Church which He has founded has ever maintained the 
same truth and condemned the contrary practise by its ac- 
tions; still, there are individuals who think differently 
from Christ's teaching and example, and disagree with the 
Church's doctrine and practice. Individuals who would 
perform the impossible, and assert by their lives that you 
may serve God and the world, that it is possible to com- 
promise matters between God and Mammon. 

To-day then let us examine whether it be possible to 
reconcile the differences between Christ and the world, 
whether or not we may act in such a manner as to be 
pleasing to our Blessed Lord, and at the same time not 
offend the world; whether or not we may bring the 
Church which has been founded by Him and teaches in 
His name to terms with the spirit of worldliness that is 

379 



XXXVII. SERMON. 

abroad, and finally to examine whether there be not in- 
dividuals in our midst who are endeavoring to serve these 
two masters, to reconcile in their lives these extremes of 
enmity. 

Christ is born into this world, grows up and appears 
among men as a teacher, as one sent into the world to 
make known the truth ; and what does He find ? A world 
in revolt and rebellion against its Creator, following out 
and repeating the " non serviam : " I will not serve, ut- 
tered by our first parents, in the garden of Paradise. He 
takes up that challenge and would conquer it, would bring 
men back to enjoy the happiness they had given up. This 
Pie would do by love. He would not force them back un- 
willingly, but He would lead them willing captives. He 
brings them truth, He brings them knowledge, He tells 
them of the heaven they have lost, of the place of happi- 
ness they are losing by their folly. He shows them how 
they are separated from it by their sin, and how they must 
ever remain so unless they can purchase it by atoning for 
their past faults, He even shows them their inability to 
do so; but at the same time consoles them by making 
known that He will assume their debt, that He will can- 
cel their sins on the condition however that they shall take 
up their cross and follow Him. 

These men heard Him, listened to His words, though 
at times they shook their heads, and said: these are hard 
sayings. They witnessed His works, they saw Him give 
sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb 
and life even to the dead. They saw these wonders, these 
miracles, they marveled at the man, and they were led to 
listen to His words. He told them He was God, and it 
was of this fact that He would especially convince them, 
for if they once recognized the fact that He was God, what- 
ever He said would be followed no matter how hard or 
how difficult it might be to flesh and blood. This then was 
the whole end and object of His life, to establish that 
truth among them. But the enemy of man's salvation 

380 



NO COMPROMISE WITH THE WORLD. 

came, he immediately saw the effect of that doctrine and 
he understood that if it were adopted, if they really be- 
lieved that Christ was God they must need sever partner- 
ship with Him and with the world. Hence he stirred up 
the spirit of jealousy in the hearts of the rulers of the 
people against Christ. We read of the rulers and priests 
of the people asking among themselves : what shall we do 
with this man ? For many people are following Him, and 
He will soon deprive us of our power. Can we not accuse 
Him of some crime, and is He not guilty of sedition and 
of blasphemy by making Himself equal to God ? Yes, 
this would be their charge, He was guilty of blasphemy 
but how would they apprehend Him ? Strange to say in 
that small school of twelve they find a traitor in the per- 
son of Judas. 

You know how He was taken prisoner and led off to 
the hall of the Roman Governor; in that hall Christ was 
first called upon by one of the rulers to compromise His 
dignity, to assert that He was not God. The rulers of 
the world knew full well that if they could draw that 
confession from Him, the people would regard Him as 
only an extraordinary man, a great teacher, a man with 
a sublime philosophy, a man with beautiful ideas of what 
people should be, but could scarcely hope to become. 
Hence they would obtain that concession; then the world 
would go on as before, and their position of teachers of 
the people and of legislators would not be usurped. 
" Come then/' said the High Priest : " I adjure thee by 
the living God that thou tell us if thou be the Christ the 
Son of God." Jesus said to him: " Thou hast said it. 
Hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the 
right hand of God and coming in the clouds of Heaven." 
Horrified at His words the High Priest starts from his 
seat and cries out : " He hath blasphemed, what need 
have w T e of witnesses, you have all heard the blasphemy, 
what think you of it ? " And the cry went up : " He is 
guilty of death." Not another word escapes our Lord, 

381 



XXXVII. SERMON. 

He sees their apparent surprise, hears the sentence and 
makes no concession; He is led off and scourged, yet no 
word escapes Him. He is crucified, and there, agonizing 
for three bitter hours upon the cross, and though He hears 
the bitter taunts of the soldiery : " If thou be the son of 
God come down from the cross," still no concession, no 
retraction, no word uttered, and He dies for the assertion 
that He is the Son of God. 

Well, as the world treated Christ, so also did it treat 
and does it treat His representative, the Church. Trace 
it through every age and you will find century after cen- 
tury calling upon that divine institution to give way, to 
conform itself to the world's ideas and the world's ways. 
But in vain, for century after century its protest like that 
of its Divine Master goes up; that it cannot, that it will 
not. The accusation remains unchanged, it is the same 
which the Jews brought against Christ ; they accused Him 
of being seditious, for in asserting that He was God, He 
asserted Himself a teacher of the world and consequently 
a usurper of what the world considered its rights. For 
ages the charge has been, and still is; that the Church is 
seditious, that she is a usurper because she proclaims her 
divine mission. She claims the right of teaching and 
of legislating for the world; hence she too is called upon 
to conform herself to the world, or meet with resistance 
from it. You know the history of the struggle. The 
chosen twelve had been sent out to preach Christ the son 
of God to the nations ; well warned were they of the diffi- 
culties w T hich were likely to attend their mission. They 
were told to arm themselves with the arms of constancy 
and resolution, not to regard the scoffs, reproaches, mis- 
eries and sufferings which might befall them ; not to fear 
those who could kill the body, but to make a free bold 
confession of Christ's divinity before the world, and if 
necessary to take up their cross and die for that saving 
truth as He did. 

The advice was followed, the precept was obeyed to 

382 



NO COMPROMISE WITH THE WORLD. 

the letter, and for three hundred long years the Church 
shed blood from every member sooner than give up her 
leader and deny her faith. One day the victim appears 
in the person of a maiden tender in years, and of little ex- 
perience in the ways of the world. Agnes the virgin pro- 
fesses herself a Christian, protests that she will not deny 
Christ, and dies a martyr; henceforth to be known as St. 
Agnes the Virgin and Martyr. The next day it will be 
in the person of a mother, Perpetua, who standing in the 
midst of the amphitheatre will be called upon to give up 
the God of the Christians, to sacrifice to Idols. In vain 
will her aged father with streaming eyes call upon her to 
have pity on his white hairs, to have pity on her father. 
In vain will he say to her that he has brought her up with 
tender care, that he has cherished her more than any other 
of his children and that she should not therefore cover his 
old age with reproach ; in vain will he tell her to consider 
the mother who nourished her, and the tender infant 
which cannot live without her; her mind is fixed, she re- 
mains unmoved, and dies professing with her last breath 
the God of the Christians. An Epipodius will be led 
forth and asked in flattering phrase not to expose himself 
to the danger of perishing through obstinacy. He will be 
advised no longer to adore a crucified man whom he can- 
not please without renouncing all pleasures; to deny 
Christ and enjoy the good things of this life which espe- 
cially belong to the young. Strengthened with the grace 
of God that young man will be bold enough to reply in 
the face of danger : " Your false compassion does not 
affect me, you know not that Jesus Christ after being cru- 
cified arose and being at the same time by a wonderful 
mystery God and man, He opened to His faithful servants 
the portals of the Heavenly Jerusalem. The pleasures to 
which you yield flatter indeed the senses, but kill the soul ; 
we make war against the body to enfranchise the soul, 
and to preserve the sway of the spiritual over the ma- 
terial," Or the world will demand that denial from the 

383 



XXXVII. SERMON. 

aged Bishop Polycarp. The unbelieving crowd in Smyrna 
will cry out ; bring forth the Bishop Polycarp. The vener- 
able old man will appear, will be hurried off to the place 
of execution and there the Pro-consul, touched with pity, 
will beseech him to remember his old age, to swear by the 
genius of the Emperor and forswear the God of the 
Christians. " Curse Christ and I will release you." That 
old man will answer with the firmness of his younger 
years : u Eighty-six years have I served Him, and He 
has done me nothing but good, how then can I curse Him 
my Lord and Saviour." And for that answer, for the 
sake of that profession he dies. And so throughout all 
those ages of persecution, no compromise, no concession 
by the faithful of Christ's Church. 

Persecution, cold steel and the seething caldron could 
not make the Church give up her claims. Then Heresy 
in its hundred shapes endeavored to obtain what threats 
and death could not wring from the Church. You know 
how Heresy struck at the very fundamental truths of the 
Church; still, through all those years, although at times 
it enlisted on its side the strong arm of the world's power, 
we are struck with the uncompromising spirit of the 
Church, who, though she saw that if she did not give way 
to the changes that w T ere asked of her she would lose in- 
dividuals, gifted minds, and whole nations, yet like her 
Divine Master proclaimed the truth and cared not for the 
consequences. We might tell you of her loss in the East, 
because she would not give up her doctrine of the Trin- 
ity; but to come nearer to our own times we have but to 
remind you of how she lost England. There, some cen- 
turies ago, reigned a King who was at one time a child 
of the Church ; nay more, he gained for himself the title 
of the Defender of the Eaith, for he had ably defended her 
doctrines against the first Reformers. A time came when 
he sought to violate the sacred contract of marriage which 
he had entered into. Eor eighteen years he had lived with 
a faithful wife, after that he sought to be released from 

384 



NO COMPROMISE WITH THE WORLD. 

her, in order that he might obtain the hand of one of her 
maids of honor. He sends to Rome and asks the Church 
to declare his marriage with Catherine his wife null and 
void. Centuries before that Church had learned, that 
what God had put together no man should separate. 
When then she heard the voice of Henry, one of the 
world's kings, claiming exemption from that law, she rec- 
ognized as in years before that she was called upon by a 
representative of the world to conform her heavenly law to 
the whims and fancies of man; she recognized that she 
was called upon to compromise her teaching, and back 
went the answer from Rome's Pontiff to England's King; 
that no exception w T ould be made in his favor; that he 
too though King and Master of England was bound by 
the Divine Law which the Church had promulgated. 
Henry therefore resolved to cut loose from the Church, 
and proclaim himself, as the historian Macaulay tells us, 
Pope of his kingdom. The Vicar of God, the expositor 
of Catholic unity, the channel of sacramental graces ; he 
arrogated to himself the right of deciding dogmatically 
what was Orthodox Doctrine and what Heresy; of draw- 
ing up and imposing confessions of faith. Bishops w r ere 
henceforth to be appointed by him and were to exercise 
their functions as his deputies during his pleasure. The 
King was to be the spiritual as well as the temporal chief 
of the nation; he it was w T ho should appoint divines of 
various ranks to preach the Gospel, and to name and make 
Priests irrespective of Ordination. The Church witnessed 
all this, saw that the nation would desert her pale, would 
set aside in time her Doctrines and Sacraments ; but still 
she remained unmoved, she did not consent that the Pre- 
cept of God should be violated even by those who had 
pow T er to lead her saintly children to the scaffold. 

Again we might tell you of a name that was a terror 

to the powers of Europe but a few years since ; giant like 

he arose and the monarchs of the continent shook before 

him. One power alone when called upon to league with 

25 385 



XXXVII SERMON. 

him in his injustices clared to arise in the person of an 
aged Pontiff and bid defiance to the Emperor Napoleon. 
Full well were the costs of that denial estimated, full well 
did that holy old man Pius VII. know that like his pre- 
decessor he would be thrown into prison, that he would 
be separated from his flock and not allowed to communi- 
cate with them. But the cost was little, when placed in 
the scale with a compromise with the world, and thus it 
was that the saintly Pope dared to say to the world: 
" this Emperor may cut us in pieces, but he will never 
obtain this renunciation from us." And if in our own 
day we would study the world's opposition to the Church 
we need but to glance at the state of Europe. True, we 
will not find the sword of persecution raised to strike, we 
will not hear each individual called upon to renounce his 
faith, but there is a more destructive persecution being 
waged against us; not destruction of our bodies but de- 
struction of our souls. For, is there not an attempt being 
made to prevent the infallible Teacher of the World from 
issuing his condemnations and censures against the doc- 
trines of Rationalism and Infidelity that are abroad. 
Against him the old accusation is being brought and the 
princes of the earth are again making the old charge: 
that the Church is seditious because she will not move on 
with the world, will not accept the world's doctrine; will 
not conform herself to the master minds of the age. 
Though bowed down with age, and without a single visible 
helping hand in the world, her august Head reiterates the 
" ITon possumus," we cannot compromise with you. 

What a glorious history for the Catholic mind to con- 
template ! Christ the divine founder of their Church 
would not give way, would not fashion His teaching and 
His practice to the world's. The Church, His spouse for 
nineteen centuries took the same beaten track and will 
not be swayed from its course. But how sadly is that 
recital marred, when we consider the compromising 
spirit of many of her children. Christ did not give way, 

386 



NO COMPROMISE WITH THE WORLD. 

the Church did not give way, her children during the 
ages of faith, would not consent to conform their lives to 
the ways of the world; to-day looking out on the world 
may we not assert that the age of unbelief has been ush- 
ered in, when we see the children, the chosen children of 
Christ who are within His Church, finally giving way 
to the long continued pressure which has been brought 
to bear against them. Seek for it in the youthful portion 
of any Catholic flock, seek for it within that class in this 
very parish and answer the question how it is with our 
young children; how it is that at times they blush for 
their Religion. Watch the reluctance with which they 
turn to religious duties, to saying their prayers, to study 
their Catechism, to go to Mass on Sundays; then judge 
and answer. Observe them as they fall under the influ- 
ence which the fear of the ridicule of their companions 
has in deterring them from even speaking of religion or 
seeming to be religious. How is this ? Ah, do we not 
fear when we think of the responsibilities of a parent be- 
fore God. Were these children not entrusted .to them with 
bright, pure innocent souls, w T as not the charge given to 
them that their children should not be brought up ignorant 
of their faith or in a place where it might be placed in 
jeopardy. 

And now what is the spirit of the parents; they have 
turned in with the world and they will tell you that their 
children are being educated, that religion is but a second- 
ary thing that they themselves will teach their children 
religion ; that now their minds are to be trained and 
drilled for a place in the world, for a place of business. 
In fact, that the time for the Christian Brother as a tutor 
and for the Sister of Charity as an instructress has passed 
away, that they do not come up to the requirements of the 
times, and thus their children grow up under a public sys- 
tem of instruction with minds cultivated but with their 
hearts and the better instincts of their nature unde- 
veloped; we meet them afterwards on the highway of life 

387 



XXXVII. SERMON. 

as compromisers of their religion, who stray into the 
Church on some grand occasion, but never visit the tri- 
bunal of penance, or pay a visit to the Sacrament of the 
Altar. 

If again you would seek for that spirit of indifference 
and compromise with the world, we would but ask you 
to consider the young Catholic man of the day, and to 
that young man put a few questions with regard to his 
manner of living. Ask him if he be a Catholic, and he 
will tell you that he is a firm believer. Ask him if he 
approaches the Sacraments and he is speechless; what is 
the reason of all this ? What spell has come over this 
young man who gave such years of promise at his home. 
He has been in the world trying to serve the two Masters, 
trying to believe in Christ and His Church and trying to 
fall in with the worldling in his conduct and practice. 
His is a divided allegiance ; with regard to his faith he 
follows Christ, with regard to his actions, he follows the 
world, and if you go further to seek the reason of all this 
you will find that he has been associating with persons of 
little or no religion, so he could find young men who come 
up to his idea among the members of his own commun- 
ity ; or again, perhaps you will find that he has been guilty 
of a greater fault. He may have been charmed with the 
workings of some organization. Now if there be any- 
thing that is known to Catholics young and old, it is the 
fact that the Church has been always opposed to secret 
organizations whatever their object. It is known, and 
they too know that She always considered her children as 
excommunicated, as cut off from her if they once enter 
such a society. 

To join such societies, whatever their object, whatever 
their aim, is certainly compromising with the world, is 
certainly endeavoring to serve the two Masters, God and 
Mammon. You are certainly not with God, for His 
Church does not acknowledge you as its child, and conse- 

388 



KO COMPROMISE WITH THE WORLD. 

quently you are against Him. You certainly do not gather 
with Him and therefore you scatter. 

But worse than these is another form of compromise 
that is going on in the world, and strange to say in this 
our young Catholic women are playing a prominent part. 
We have all learned from our Catechism that there are 
Seven Sacraments in the Church of God, and among the 
number we find the Sacrament of Matrimony mentioned. 
We all of us know how dearly bought were these Seven 
Sacraments, these channels of grace. They cost our Lord 
His life-blood and to-day flowing through these seven 
streams which have their source in Calvary, grace is con- 
veyed into our souls. We know moreover that the Church 
is the custodian and the guardian of all the Sacraments, 
that they are to be conferred by her Ministers or at least 
in their presence; and yet what do many of our young 
people do ? They go off and acknowledge by their prac- 
tice that the state, the petty justice of the peace, before 
whom are tried only the smallest cases, is equal to the 
Church, and they enter into that holy contract which St. 
Paul calls a great sacrament in Christ and in the Church 
in a manner most condemnable. Is this not compromising 
on a large scale ? Is it not saying to our Blessed Lord ; I 
acknowledge that you established a Church and that you 
placed in that Church the Sacraments purchased by your 
blood, at the same time I admit that they should be re- 
ceived from the hands or in presence of your Ordained 
Minister; but for the present I choose to marry as I see 
others marry who are not within the pale of the Church. 
So the compromise goes on and at other times it will as- 
sume another form, one I might say as dangerous ; which 
is the practice of leading to our Altars in your company 
one who is not of the same faith, one who in point of fact 
practises no religion. What blessing can you expect from 
such engagements ? Do you expect the blessing of God 
while you are violating His command and precept. Ah, 
the spirit of compromise is going on daily, hence the weak- 

3S9 " 



XXXVII. SERMON. 

ness of our faith, hence the inconsistency we witness on 
the part of our young people who should be looked upon 
as the future hope of the Church. Is it not true that there 
is a strange and peculiar persecution going on against the 
Church; in our day it goes on unobserved, but when our 
attention is called to it we find that we are drifting slowly 
and silently into the current and tide of the Godless times. 
Be on your guard then, and now during the season of 
Lent, that season which reminds us most vividly of our 
position in the world as Christians and as followers of a 
crucified God. Let us take such resolutions as may se- 
cure us from falling off in our allegiance to God, .and ob- 
tain for us the promised reward hereafter. 



390 



XXXVIII. SERMON. 
TRUE AND FALSE PROPHETS. 



" Beware of false prophets who come to you in the clothing 
of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 

Math. vii. 15. 



When we stand on the shore and watch a huge vessel 
loose its moorings and start out over the waters as if eager 
to make its journey we are delighted for the moment, for 
there starts up before us the hopes and joys of those on 
board as they move on apace to the other world. But a 
second thought and our joys become fears ; for looking out 
upon the vast ocean imagination sees mountains of dark 
clouds arise, hears the low rumbling of threatening thun- 
der, sees the forked lightning fly from east to west, sees 
the sea lashed into fury, sees that great steamer tossed like 
a feather upon the waters, now disappearing as though 
submerged and lost and now rising but to be cast again 
down by the storm; then it is that we ask for the sure, 
steady and tried helmsman. Such is the picture that 
forces itself upon the mind, when we consider our Blessed 
Lord establishing and founding His Church upon the 
world. It was to be the Ship of Salvation, carrying souls 
back to their Maker from whom they had been living in 
exile. It was to sail on amid storms and sunshine, now 
almost lost to view, and now rising but to show the power 
of the hand that guided it safely through the tempest. 
About it; too, clouds thick and heavy were to gather, so 

391 



XXXVIII. SERMON. 

thick that is could scarcely be perceived ; and about it, too, 
thunders were to roll, and roll so loudly that the voice of 
its helmsman could scarcely be heard. But still it was 
to ride on safely, securely, for a divine promise had been 
passed that not only the power of the world or the power 
of man should not confound it, nay more, the very gates 
of hell should never prevail against it. The Church, 
founded and established by Christ, wherever it may be, is 
the only true prophet and true teacher upon this world. 
It will be our duty then this morning, to show by very 
simple proofs, where that true Light of the World is, to 
point out some of the false prophets with whom the world 
is filled, and in conclusion ask ourselves the very practical, 
and at the same time the only necessary question in this 
world: are we followers of the true or false prophets of 
whose existence our Blessed Lord apprises us in this 
day's Gospel. 

Every man who believes in Christ, no matter what may 
be the other articles of his faith, admits that the mission 
of that Divine Person upon the world was a mission of 
conquest. He came to conquer the world, to win it over 
to Himself. Being God, there were no means which He 
could not command for attaining His object. The im- 
perial Caesars reigned in Rome, and by a word He might 
have established them on His side, and so by the force of 
arms oblige people to follow and embrace His doctrines. 
There were men of learning, men of culture, thoughtful, 
intelligent men ; generations rich in worldly power and 
display; men of great influence, well calculated from all 
appearances to be successful heralds of the doctrines Christ 
wished to impose ; yet these He discarded and passed by. 
Walking one day upon the borders of a lake He sees two 
poor fishermen washing their nets. He says to them : 
" Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men." 
With these He began His public life, choosing twelve such 
men; men who toiled from morning until night for their 
humble living; men who walked not in soft garments but 

392 



True and false prophets. 

who bore upon their foreheads the sweat of labor, and upon 
their hands the hardened flesh of continual toil. Men 
who were not gifted with brightness of intellect, not refined, 
but ignorant men, dull in their powers of comprehension, 
continually asking our Blessed Lord questions, and at 
times receiving from Him chidings for their stupidity. 
Strange indeed was the selection of such an army, destined 
to obtain a victory over the entire world. If Alexander 
had heard of this choice, and known the obstacles, he would 
have considered it madness. No, God chose the weak to 
confound the strong ; He chose those who seemed the least 
likely to be successful in order that the divinity of the 
work might be manifested to the world. When that choice 
was made He gave the command to go and teach all na- 
tions ; to go, caring not for the difficulties of tongues ; to 
go, without seeking the permission of any temporal ruler 
be he king or despot, emperor or tyrant. Go, nor need 
you stop at the breadth of ocean or at the height of moun- 
tain ; go, despite the obstructions which nature and man 
may throw in your way, and preach whatsoever I have 
commanded you. 

But they were to be separated, those twelve; different 
parts of the earth would lay claim to them as their Apos- 
tles; was there to be no way of knitting them together? 
That had been provided for. Peter had been entrusted 
with the care of the whole flock ; " feed my lambs and feed 
my sheep/' it had been said to him alone ; " Thou art 
Peter, thou art the rock upon which I shall build my 
Church/' and he stood forth, a man vested with the au- 
thority of Christ Himself. To him alone was the charge 
given to provide for both pastors and people ; he alone was 
to be the corner-stone of Christ's Church upon earth ; he 
alone was to be Christ's vicar. Here then have we the 
touchstone whereby we may infallibly find the Church of 
God, the true prophet, the true teacher of the world. Peter 
was to be the head. The Apostles did no separate acts 
apart from him, they taught the same doctrine, they laid 

393 



XXXVIII. SERMON. 

no other foundation; the keys which they possessed were 
first entrusted to Peter personally. They heard our 
Blessed Lord addressing Peter as the rock upon which the 
Church was to be built, and no voice was raised against 
him; they recognized him as their head. Has he ever 
ceased to act in that capacity ? Has he ever relinquished 
his position ? If so, let history tell us the year, the day, 
the hour ; but if history be silent, as it is, then we ask who 
stands at present in Peter's place ? Has he a successor ? 
If of old we had asked for his successor the world would 
have pointed to Linus, to Leo, to Gregory, and we to-day, 
following in their footsteps many point to Pius X. In 
the early days, history attests the fact that there was but 
one Church on earth. There was no second, no third, none 
the head of that Church was the Bishop of Rome. If then 
Rome was the centre of the true Church, we again ask: 
like it, none beside it; and beyond dispute it attests that 
where is now the centre of the true Church ? Has Rome 
given up her claims ? If so we again inquire for the year, 
the day, and the hour. And if history is again silent on 
this vital question, as it is, then we ask where is the Church 
that alone claims Rome as her centre, and Rome's Episco- 
pal ruler as her head. Need we tell you that the world 
confesses that it is none but the Catholic Church, which 
is spread throughout the world. And if you would hear 
the proof, the living voice of the world's confession, it 
would tell you that never before had it beheld such a con- 
course of rich and poor flocking from all countries to that 
central city to visit the Pontiff, to assure him of their 
devotion in his hour of trial. There you will find princes 
of royal lineage, ambassadors from crowned heads, and 
peasants from poor country places, all with the same motive 
seeking the halls of the Vatican palace; to venerate the 
dignity, the office, and the virtues of Pius X, and to 
protest against the false prophets of the world. 

The Catholic Church then, with Peter as its head, is 
the great prophet-teacher that takes the place of Christ, 

394 



TRUE AND FALSE PROPHETS. 

the king of prophets and teachers upon this world. Let us 
turn and consider for a moment the many false prophets 
which have arisen as Christ Himself foretold they would 
do, and you will find that before the Apostles went forth 
from that upper chamber where the power of the Holy 
Ghost descended upon them, knitting them together by the 
Charity diffused in their breasts from the presence of that 
one Holy Spirit, that the false prophets were anticipating 
their advent in the world and had already taken counsel 
as to how they would lay hold of them and destroy them 
as they did the very founder. So has the world ever since, 
diabolically inspired, sought, as it even now seeks, to shake 
the central figure of God's Church, the kev-stone of that 
Christian temple, whose arch spans the entire world from 
east to west. 

Christ our Blessed Lord laid down His life for the doc- 
trine He taught. St. Peter his first Vicar followed in 
his footsteps, and so for three hundred years, few indeed 
were the Popes who escaped the strong arm of the State. 
This was the persecution of the sword, and you may there- 
fore think it strange how we can consider those who raised 
it against the Church, as wolves in the clothing of sheep. 
But so it was ; and as a proof of it we need but cite you 
one particular case drawn from those pages of persecution. 
It is that of St. Felicitas and her seven sons. Felicitas 
was a woman who by her saintly example led many idol- 
aters to forego their worship of idols and attach themselves 
to the religion of the Christians. The Emperor Antoninus 
heard that this pious lady and her family practised her 
religion with a boldness which won the admiration of the 
Pagans themselves, and that the Gods of the Empire were 
on that account offended, and must therefore be appeased 
by her death. The Saint was sent for by Publius, the 
Prefect of Rome who took her aside from her children and 
made use of the strongest inducements to bring her to 
sacrifice to the Gods. But she answered : " Do not think 
to frighten me by threats, or to win me by fair speeches ; 

395 



XXXVIII. SERMON. 

the spirit of God within me will not suffer me to be over- 
come by Satan, and will make me victorious over all your 
assaults." She remained unmoved, and the next day the 
Prefect, seated in state in the square of Mars, before the 
temple of that god, again brought Felicitas and her sons 
before him and said to her : " Take pity on your children 
Felicitas, they are in the bloom of youth and may aspire 
to the greatest honors," and the good mother replies: 
" Your pity is impiety, and the compassion to which you 
exhort me would make me the most cruel of mothers." 
Then turning towards her children, she said to them: 
" My sons, look up to Heaven where Jesus Christ with His 
Saints expect you. Be faithful in His love and fight 
courageously for your souls." Here was shown the wolf- 
ish cunning of these first false prophets, the persecutors 
of the Church. They would fain win the Christian soul 
by flattery, by holding out to them the favor of the Em- 
peror, the joys of a long life, the honors and preferments 
their children might expect. But the Christian heard 
within his heart the words which Christ had spoken to 
them : " Beware of those who come to you in the clothing 
of sheep but inwardly are ravening wolves ; " beware? of 
those who would trick you out of eternal life, by holding 
out to you the possibilities of a happy life upon this earth ; 
beware of them, and if they threaten you, hear them not ; 
" fear not him who can kill the body only, but rather fear 
him who can kill both the body and the soul." These were 
the words which sustained the Christian martyrs during 
the agonies of the most cruel tortures which could be in- 
flicted. 

The age of violence passed by, the sword of persecution 
was sheathed, the Church came out triumphant ; then broke 
out the voice of the false prophets in another form. The 
age of heresy was ushered in; again they appeared in 
sheep's clothing ; feigning to be solicitous for the true faith, 
they began to teach the most dreadful heresy. The voice 
of Arius was heard and the divinity of Christ was denied. 

396 



TRUE AND FALSE PROPHETS. 

The voice of Macedonius was heard and the divinity of the 
Holy Spirit was impugned. Emperors defended the here- 
siarchs, the power of the state was enlisted on their side; 
apparently fair promises were made, they sought to rob 
the Christian of his faith ; they were ravenous in wishing 
to destroy his belief, but again he stood firm. Here we 
can again illustrate the age of heresy by a particular case. 
It is that of the great St. Basil, the Bishop of Csesarea. 
The Emperor Yalens had sided with the Arian party and 
called upon the Bishops to communicate with the Arians. 
Journeying through the East and waiting upon the Bish- 
ops separately, his Prefect Modestus heard of Basil and 
summoned him into his presence. He set before Basil 
the arguments which had been successful with others ; that 
it was foolish to resist the times and to trouble the Church 
about inconsiderable questions, and then promised to obtain 
for him the prince's favor if he complied. Failing how- 
ever by soft language, he adopted a threatening tone ; but 
in Basil he met his match. Rising hastily from his chair 
the Prefect asked Basil if he did not fear his power, and 
its consequences ; the many pains which a prefect could in- 
flict. " Let me know them," said Basil. Modestus replied : 
u Confiscation, exile, torture, death." " Think of some 
other threat," said Basil, " these have no influence upon me. 
He runs no risk of confiscation who has nothing to lose 
except those mean garments, and a few books ; nor does he 
care for exile who does not make a home of the spot he 
dwells in, but a home wherever he is cast, or rather every 
where God's home is, whose pilgrim he is. Nor can tor- 
tures harm a frame so frail as to break under the first blow : 
you can but strike once and death would but send me the 
sooner to Him for whom I live and labor, for w T hom I am 
dead rather than alive, to whom I have long been journey- 
ing." Modestus said: " ~No one ever yet spoke to Mo- 
destus with such freedom." " Peradventure," replied 
Basil, " Modestus never yet fell in with a Bishop, or sure 
in a like trial you would have heard like language. 

397 



XXXVIII. SERMON. 

Prefect in other things we are gentle and more humble 
than other men living, for such is the commandment, but 
when God's honor is at stake we think of nothing else, look- 
ing simply to Him. Fire and sword, beasts of prey, irons 
to rend the flesh, are an indulgence rather than a terror to 
a Christian ; therefore insult, threaten, do your worst, make 
the most of your power. Let the Emperor be informed 
of my purpose. Me you gain not, you persuade not to 
an impious creed by menaces even more frightful." 

From that field of heresy came the Church likewise 
victorious. !STo jot of the faith entrusted to her keeping 
was lost. But since then different heresies have sprung 
up ; especially since the time of the Reformation have the 
false prophets, against whom we are cautioned by our 
Divine Lord, appeared. They have ushered in what we 
now call the age of reason, the age of intelligence, thus 
doing away with all faith. This effect was not foreseen, 
but was nevertheless the natural outgrowth of the first ar- 
ticle of the reformer's belief. And hence the authority of 
the divine teacher was overthrown, and men began to grope 
about for themselves by the faint light of their own in- 
telligences ; hence it is that to-day we find as many creeds 
as persons, each one his own authority, each one practis- 
ing his own belief. Others, lookers on, beholding this 
variety of creeds, though all profess to believe in Christ, 
draw the conclusion that all are good; that a person may 
be saved in this or that Church, that it matters little to 
which he belongs. Thus they become indifferent, while 
others more logical and more penetrating, reason with 
themselves after this manner : they will not study the past, 
for to them it is a dead letter, they take the present as they 
find it, and say that there is no truth with regard to God 
in the world; for all these different religions propose to 
teach the truth of God, and yet all disagree. Since there 
is no truth, therefore there is no God; in these men we 
have the infidel. 

Here then are those who in our day come in sheep's 

398 



TRUE AND FALSE PROPHETS. 

clothing. In how many ways do they appear? What 
means do they leave untried to turn us from the safe path 
of truth % Take that most powerful of means for good or 
bad in this world : We mean the press. That power which 
if properly used would be the finest creation of the human 
mind, that power destined by Almighty God to be the 
vehicle of truth, but converted by man into its destroyer. 
That power, which should raise up society and give to it 
its proper tone, you will find it in the hands of men who 
pander to the passions and prejudices of individuals. The 
young man takes up the daily morning paper, there he 
sees religion, if not absolutely, at least in some of its 
forms scoffed at; it is precisely there that the lurking 
poison lies, for, seeing his Holy religion ridiculed, and its 
representatives he cannot stand the pressure of sarcasm, 
and so falls a victim to human opinion. They do not stop 
here. From the ponderous jaws of the press come books 
denying facts of history misrepresenting religion, ascribing 
effects to causes that never existed ; these books are thrust 
into the hands of our young in the school-room, they are 
read and taken up by them as truth telling-books, and so 
in their first years, minds, created for the glory and the 
ornament of religion and science, are estranged from their 
religion and from God, and meet us in after life in the 
person of the gentlemanly lawless citizen. 

Again, knowing the power of organization they come 
before us in the name of societies, benevolent societies ; 
but at the same time societies which seek, and succeed in 
a manner, to break up the universality of Christian Char- 
ity and destroy the right of the individual making him a 
slave to their purposes, destroying the virtue of Charity 
inculcated by our Blessed Lord, and substituting in its 
stead a limited Philanthropy, a virtue of man's creation. 
Into these secret organizations are our young men cajoled, 
under the pretext that it will be the best means of succeed- 
ing in life, the best possible way of becoming rich ; while 
at the same time, bv moving in those societies with men 

399 



XXXVIII. SERMON. 

of different religious professions or perhaps, which is still 
worse, men of no belief or religion, they are finally tainted 
by the surrounding atmosphere and become very indiffer- 
ent or bad Catholics, — Catholics who stay away from Mass, 
who stay away from the Sacraments, who in fact are 
scarcely known to be Catholics until the hour of death, 
when a priest is sent for to administer the last rites of 
religion to a man who ignored them when in sound health. 
Here then are two powerful weapons which these false 
teachers make use of in our day, and these two weapons we 
must guard against. Some of us perhaps may have been 
drifting unconsciously. To that question which we were 
to put to ourselves in conclusion, whether or not we are 
following the true or false prophets, we may have to con- 
fess that we have suffered ourselves to be misled, and if, 
my friends, you would know whether or not you are, you 
have but to ask yourselves a few simple questions; to ask 
yourselves whether you are a true child of your Mother 
the Catholic Church, whether you endeavor to hear Her 
voice and to follow Her commands ; whether in your lives 
you give an example to those about you in going to the 
Sacraments when She bids you go, or whether you be not 
scandalizing those whom you should edify. If you can- 
not answer these questions sincerely to yourself, you may 
rest assured that you are following some false light. It 
may be that you are not affected through either of the 
agencies that we have mentioned, but be sure there is 
something at work that needs removal, and that something 
must be removed if you would consider yourself a follower 
of the true light, the only teacher of this world: THE 
HOLY CATHOLIC CHUECII. 



400 



XXXIX. SERMON. 
DEATH. 



" In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou 
return to the earth out of which thou wast taken ; for dust thou 
art and into dust shalt thou return." 

Gen. III. 19. 



We shall speak to you on a subject as old as the world 
itself. Scarcely had man been made when the sentence of 
Death was pronounced upon him ; God was heard to say 
in his anger: " In the sweat of thy face shalt -thou eat 
bread until thou return to the earth out of which thou 
wast taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou 
return." 

Since then, the Sermon on Death has been preached 
time and again. The unbeliever tells us of its certainty, 
but leaves to us no hope nor consolation; he tells us of 
the grave which will swallow up all, without promising 
us a future life of reward for the many good actions we 
may have performed here. To his mind, death is to man 
what it is to the animal; complete annihilation. But 
thanks to Heaven, such is not our belief. Viewing this 
world in the light of Revelation, we see indeed the cer- 
tainty of death, but we have hopes to be realized here- 
after; we regard this world as but a state of transition; 
we regard it as a place of trial, a battle-ground upon 
which we are to appear as conquerors or victims. To the 
Christian, death comes as a liberator, as one who frees 
us from troubles and trials which but too often make our 
26 401 



XXXIX. SERMON. 

hearts grow sick and faint. Such are the two classes of 
preachers who have spoken upon death from the begin- 
ning; this morning, we would speak to you of its cer- 
tainty, and of its circumstances, and my plea for so doing, 
will be the season of Lent. 

On its first day, Ash Wednesday, The Church in every 
corner of the habitable globe will call her children about 
the Altar, she will put on the garments of penance, and 
she will ask her faithful sons and daughters to do pen- 
ance for their sins; she will remind them of the Doctrine 
of The Church on this point; she will tell* them that 
though their sins may have been pardoned in the tribu- 
nal of penance, still there is a temporal punishment to be 
attached to them, which must be undergone either in this 
life, or in the world to come. She will ask them to come 
and kneel before her ministers, and receive upon their 
foreheads at the same time the sign of mortality, and the 
sign of immortality; the ashes symbolizing the corrup- 
tion of the flesh, and the cross designating the immortality 
of the spirit. She will remind them again of that old 
lesson which she has repeated for centuries : " Remem- 
ber man that thou art dust and unto dust shalt thou re- 
turn." She would have us ask ourselves, as I would ask 
you this morning, a few questions such as these: Shall 
I die ? When will I die ? Where will I die ? How will 
I die ? And she would have you gather from the answers 
which each one of you gives to these questions, resolutions 
which will always keep you from falling into sin. 

Shall we die? The question appears ridiculous, for 
where is the man or child who does not know that just so 
surely as he is born into this world, so surely shall he leave 
it by the passage of death. It is a truth that we are con- 
tinually hearing. If we walk out for pleasure, the hearse 
and nodding plumes we pass by in the streets tell us of 
its certainty ; the sign of mourning swinging from a neigh- 
bor's door: the long dark garments worn by some friend; 
these are continually sounding it in our ears. We ride 

402 



DEATH. 

from city to city, and on our way we are whirled past 
the graves of the dead; we look from our window and 
see the solemn funeral train passing by ; we walk through 
our principal squares and, hemmed in between the stores 
of fashion, and as though death were mocking at us, we 
see the undertaker's sign in the shape of a coffin. Clus- 
ters gather about the show windows on either side admire 
the display of goods presented, but about one window there 
is no loiterer, no idle gazer; it is the show window of 
Death. It is the silent preacher in the streets, who tells 
us in truth of the littleness of man's pride. We pick up 
the morning paper and regularly, for no day goes by with- 
out it, our eye rests on the obituary column ; the morning 
mail comes round and as we receive our letters how often 
do they bear the sad news that some near relative has 
died. We hear the news boy's voice in the streets; and 
what is he crying but a message of death : he tells of 
some dreadful accident whereby lives have been lost ; tells 
of some murder, tells of war where thousands are being 
cut down hourly ; tells of famine where thousands are per- 
ishing of hunger; tells of some epidemic just broken out 
which is hurrying off hundreds to the grave. Wherever 
we go the preacher's voice is heard, and his text is always 
the same : " It is decreed for all men once to die." We 
go out for an evening's pleasure, we go to a place where 
we expect to hear nothing upon this subject, it may be to 
the theatre; the scenes shift, the actors appear, the very 
play that we came to gaze upon for amusement's sake tells 
the same sad story of death ; it is a tragedy iu which the 
hero dies ; death is again its lesson. We go to the pleasure 
party ; halls are lighted, the festive board is prepared, the 
voice of mirth goes round and hours go by; but soon the 
lights grow dim, the halls are cleared again, and when we 
return, we find the long spacious hall deserted; a vast 
grave in its silence. We pick up a novel to while away 
time, we become acquainted with its ideal characters, we 
enter into their very lives ; we grieve with them when sad ; 

403 



XXXIX. SERMON. 

we rejoice with them when happy; we finish the story, 
we close the book; and as in real life we find those ideals 
dissolved by the novelist through the avenue of death. 

So it is that we become convinced and say to ourselves : 
of all future events death is the most certain ; from it there 
is no refuge; young and old, sick and healthy, are here 
on a level and equally without escape; nay more, for its 
certainty we have the infallibility of God's own words: 
" It is decreed for all men once to die." It is not some- 
thing that may happen ; it has been decreed by God him- 
self, and as God cannot err, so death will not fail. Ex- 
amine the past and ask; where are the many generations 
that have peopled the earth for six thousand years ? 
Where the Patriarchs, the Prophets of God's chosen peo- 
ple ? Where the kings and mighty ones of earth ? Where 
those countless armies that once met on this earth in the 
shock of deadly conflict ? All have passed away, all have 
lain down to the sleep of ages: the world has been con- 
verted into one huge sepulchre ; for " all that tread the 
globe to-day are but as a handful to the tribes which slum- 
ber in its bosom." One of our poets has beautifully writ- 
ten on this theme. He tells us: 

" Leaves have their time to fall, 
And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath, 

And stars to set; but all, 
Thou hast all seasons for thine own, Death ! " 

Death then is certain; there is no escaping him. A day 
will come when our names will be whispered about, and 
men will say that we are dead. A day will come when 
preparations will be made for our funerals. A day will 
come when our friends will gather about our homes to 
bear us thence to our last resting place. A day will come 
when we shall be borne into this church, laid in this aisle, 
and the words of the last absolution pronounced over our 
remains. A day will come when our friends will stand 

404 



DEATH. 

in tears above our open graves, and hear the cold earth 
rattle upon our coffin. All this is sure to come, and you 
may tell me that you know it ; you may tell me that you 
know that none are exempt from it, that you know that 
the Saints died, that the Blessed Virgin, sinless as she 
was, died: that Jesus Christ, though God, was not an 
exception to the law, and that therefore you do not ex- 
pect to escape it. You may ask why therefore do we 
speak to you of what is so unpleasant to you? We ask 
in return ; Are you prepared to die ? This is why we 
speak to you of death's certainty ; this is why we speak of 
that certain journey that we are sure to take at some fu- 
ture time. Are we prepared ? Have we everything set 
in order ? You know how many things you would have 
to prepare, if you were thinking of leaving home for a 
time, how many things you would have to say to those 
from whom you would be separating. You would be very 
sure to forget nothing; now when you are sure to leave 
home and family once for all, have you nothing to prepare ? 
Are you ready to meet your God ? Have you nothing to 
say? Have you not to confess that you have been a sin- 
ner, that you have been unjust, that you have been a scan- 
dal perhaps to your own family or to your neighbors ? It 
is for this reason, that we speak to you ; that you may pre- 
pare yourselves. By preparing yourselves we mean that 
you should lead lives that would be a daily preparation 
for death. To live each day as though it were your last 
upon earth. 

But when shall we die ? This is the second question. 
We would have each of you ask yourselves : When shall 
I die? And to that question, unlike the first, you will 
receive no answer. Our position is that of a criminal 
about to be executed, he is brought into court, his offence 
is examined, and he is found guilty; the judge rises, 
passes sentence, proclaims that on such a day and on such 
an hour he will be taken from the prison to the gallows, 
and there hanged by the neck until dead. Our position 

405 



XXXIX. SERMON. 

is something similar to that ; the criminal has one advan- 
tage over us; he knows the time of his death: our case 
has been tried, and sentence has been passed. " As all 
men sinned in Adam, so also all men must die ; " but, 
when shall I die ? When will the sentence be executed ? 
Will I live for years ? You may plead youth ; say that 
you are young and full of life and strength ; yet how 
many like you have gone down to the grave. Youth is 
a dangerous time ; it .is the time when the passions seek to 
rule ; a time when they generally become dominant ; when 
habits of vice begin to govern and if not checked bring 
down hundreds to the grave long before their time. You 
may say that you are not of that class, that your lives are 
not lives of dissipation and carousal ; that you live regu- 
lar lives and are of good habits; but even then, what se- 
curity have you that the appointed time has not arrived, 
when you must die ? Visit our cemeteries and behold 
how many, like you of regular lives and regular habits, 
have died at your age. And then, even granting that you 
have time to live, ask yourselves: How many years can 
I live at most ? Taking the time most favorable to one 
of your years, how long will you live ? Were we to ask 
this question of you individually, some would say about 
five or ten years ; others might say twenty or thirty ; 
whereas not one of you could say that I shall live fifty 
or sixty. Shall you die this year? Shall you die this 
week? This day? This hour? We know not. But 
does not the revealed word of God shed some light upon 
the questions we are now asking ourselves ? The inspired 
volume tells us that " death will come stealthily, like a 
thief in the night, when we least expect it ; " we are to 
be taken by surprise. There is to be no guarantee ; youth 
and the full flush of manhood is no guarantee. Old age 
with its whitened locks will not be respected. The child 
but a day old is to be carried off as unexpectedly as the 
man who has spent his life in sin. What is the reason 
of this? Why are we to be taken off so unexpectedly? 

406 



DEATH. 

It is because Almighty God would have us learn another 
lesson from this dreadful uncertainty of the time of our 
death. 

In answer to our first question, we became assured that 
we shall all one day die. And our conclusion was that 
we should therefore prepare. We cannot answer our 
second question, we cannot tell the moment nor time of 
our death, and this uncertainty is to teach us that we must 
not only prepare ourselves for death, but that we must 
be always prepared ; always in a state of friendship and 
grace with God, since we know not the day nor the hour. 
Our lives then and every moment of our life, must be a 
preparation for death. We must not live one single mo- 
ment in deadly sin. This is the inevitable conclusion 
we must come to. You may say perhaps, that if you have 
not the certainty of a longer life, you have at least a fair 
hope that you will live longer. There are many greater 
sinners than you who are leading scandalous lives, and 
they live to a good old age, and you have hopes that you 
may share in their good fortune ; but no, do not draw such 
a conclusion, remember that it is a question of the salva- 
tion of your immortal soul. We are not speaking of 
riches, these you might risk and recover; we are not 
speaking of a worldly reputation, this too, you might sac- 
rifice and afterwards regain; but we are speaking of the 
soul, of yourself, of your destiny, and of your fate in the 
next world. Will you hazard the salvation of the immor- 
tal soul with which you are endowed ? Once lost, it can- 
not be reclaimed, once gone, it can never be regained. 
Will you not then agree with me, that you are not wise 
when you live in a state of sin and, will you not espe- 
ciolly agree with me that those who have been living for 
years in that state are unwise ? Will not those who have 
grown old in the service of the world, those who may have 
spent their lives in amassing wealth, forgetful of God and 
of his justice; will they not agree with me that their lives 
have been lost. Tou who may have ever been the slaves 

407 



XXXIX. SERMON. 

of intemperance and of sin, you who may have been 
charmed with the pleasures of the world and who cannot 
spare one half hour in the week to the service of God by 
hearing Mass; will you not all agree that you are fool- 
ish in not preparing, and in not being prepared for that 
uncertain moment ? 

In the third place, where will we die ? This may be 
a thought that has never occurred to us, we may have 
never asked ourselves the question ; it is something that 
men are not generally troubled about; they expect death 
to come upon them for the most part in the bosom of their 
families ; but alas ! how many are deceived. Shall we die 
in our own house surrounded by friends and acquaint- 
ances ? Will relatives stand by us at that last hour to 
comfort and bid us hope ? Or shall we die far from home 
in the midst of strangers, with no one about us whom we 
know, with no one to comfort us ? Will our death be 
natural ? Shall we be stricken down by a long and linger- 
ing illness, or shall we die a violent death ? Shall we die 
by our own hand or by the hand of an assassin? Will it 
be upon the roadside suddenly, or will it be upon the 
ocean ? Will it be in the midst of enjoyment and inno- 
cent pleasure, or will it be while we are in the very act 
of offending Almighty God ? All this is hidden from us 
for the self same reason ; that we may be always prepared 
wherever we may be, or whatever we may be doing ; for we 
know not the time nor the place, the day nor the hour. 
We might develop this point, indefinitely but still we would 
have to come to the same conclusion : we know not where 
we shall die. 

Provided we answer our fourth question satisfactorily, 
it matters little what answers we give to the questions 
when we shall die, and where we shall die. The great 
question is and ought to be for us : How shall we die ? 
This is the all-important question, for if we die well, we 
need not care how soon we may be called upon to give up 
our life : we need not care whether it be this year or next j 

408 



DEATH. 

this day or next ; provided we die well, we care not when. 
So too, provided we die well, Ave care not where we die: 
whether it be in our house surrounded by friends, or 
whether it be in a distant land surrounded by strangers. 
The great question is ; how will each one of us die. Death 
will come, and our death-bed will be that of the just or 
that of the wicked. To-day we can conjecture from our 
past life, what it will be ; for as we live, so shall we die. 
If we live a life of forgetfulness of God and of His Holy 
Religion, we must expect to be deserted by Him in death. 
But if on the contrary, our lives be well ordered, well 
regulated, according to the laws and the commandments 
of God, we may expect to die in His friendship. Apply 
then this principle, and say how will it fare with you ? 

How many forget God, how few really serve him; how 
many spend the day carelessly, never to think of Him 
during the coming week. How then shall we die ? To- 
day we have it in our power to answer that question ; we 
may to-day determine whether we shall die the death of 
the just or the death of the wicked. Go to the death-bed, 
and stand by that of the wicked. Three things particu- 
larly torment such a soul. His past life rushes in upon 
his memory; he sees it all misspent, his sins come back 
upon him ; all the forbidden pleasures he enjoyed, all the 
crimes he committed rise up to condemn him; there is 
not in his past life a solitary action that he can recall with 
pleasure, and if there be, he beholds how sadly it is out- 
weighed by his offences. He remembers the many good 
works he might have performed, the poor he might have 
assisted, the Communions he might have received, the 
masses he might have assisted at ; the Confessions he 
might have made, the occasions of sin he might have 
avoided; all the memory of wrong that he has done, and 
the meanory of good that he has left undone, all come back 
in that last moment to torture the poor soul. But not only 
does the memory of the past grieve him, but the present 
likewise afflicts him. Who can express his sorrow at that 

409 



XXXIX. SERMON. 

moment? His pain is intensified; he is about to give up 
friends and relations who surround him. He sees riches 
that he has labored for during his whole life about to slip 
from his hands, to be squandered perhaps, by an unworthy 
heir; or if he be not wealthy, he sees himself leaving a 
destitute family upon the world ; a family perhaps which 
he has not brought up in the true religion; a family des- 
tined to curse his memory in the future. But the tortures 
of the past and of the present are nothing to the agony he 
feels when he contemplates the future; his short life has 
been spent, but a future, everlasting in duration, begins. 
Imagination conjures up the just judge who is about to 
consider his every thought, his every action, and his every 
word; he goes further; and thinks of the abode of the 
damned and their sufferings; he thinks of souls suffering 
there who have not committed one-half of the offences for 
which he is now about to be judged ; he sees heaven, that 
place of reward and delight, which he might have enjoyed 
at the price of a little self-sacrifice ; he sees the innumer- 
able bright spirits who crowd it, and he feels within him- 
self : I am lost, I cannot hope in a moment to become as 
one of those; and so dies in a state of despair. 

Go then to the death-bed of the just and behold how 
calmly they depart this life. To them the past comes 
back, but with no terrors. True, there have been sins 
there, dark spots upon their lives which they would erase 
were it not too late ; but the thought of having done Pen- 
ance, satisfies them. Their many good actions, their 
many sacrifices in God's services are there; the Sundays 
so well spent, the days offered and consecrated to God in 
morning prayer; the masses assisted at so devoutly; the 
good Confessions made, the Communions received every 
week or month ; the many little sacrifices, such as not go- 
ing to certain places of pleasure, or not exposing them- 
selves to sin, all these come back to those souls, and fill 
them with ineffable joy. The present too but adds to it; 
they do not desire to live if it be God's will to takejthem 

410 



DEATH. 

from the world ; all they desire is to receive the Sacra- 
ments, the channels of grace, in that last hour ; the ambas- 
sador of heaven stands beside them, pronouncing for the 
last time the sacramental words of Absolution, gives them 
their God, and tells those christian souls, to depart from 
that body fearlessly, and to enter into the joys of the 
Blessed. Those souls without fear look into that everlast- 
ing future, look with anxious expectation for the hour, the 
moment, which will unite them to those Blessed Spirits; 
the moment which will be the first of everlasting life, in 
heaven, where " God shall wipe away all tears from their 
eyes, and death shall be no more; nor mourning, nor cry- 
ing, nor sorrow shall be no more, for the former things 
are passed away." 

Ah, where is the person who would not like to die the 
death of the just; you w r ould all wish it, and as you all 
wish it so may you all depart from this world in that man- 
ner ? The Psalmist tells me, " my soul is in my own 
hands." To-day I can make up my mind to lose or to 
save my soul. If I go on as I have been doing in the 
present, there is a likelihood of my losing that soul. 
What I am to do then, is to stop just here, and determine 
to save that soul, to save it by and through all the means 
left us by our Blessed Lord. The Church is about to en- 
ter upon a time of Penance, I will enter upon it with her, 
and I will do penance for my past life, and endeavor to 
do better for the future. The first week of Lent will find 
me at peace with my God ; I will put it off no longer ; this 
Lent will be spent as a time of real penance. If I am 
able to keep all the regulations of my church, regarding 
fast or abstinence, I will do so ; and if I cannot, I will 
at least do something; I will hear Mass daily, or I will 
attend Devotions every evening. I will go around those 
stations in spirit that my Lord did in His sufferings, and 
I will there learn His love for me, and promise to love 
Him more faithfully. 

If we could thus be induced to make peace with our 

411 , 



XXXIX, SERMON. 

God during this season, and perform some work of pen- 
ance for the past, would not Easter Day be indeed a day 
of Resurrection for us, and might we not hope that it 
would only be a type of our resurrection on the last day, 
when we shall rise to enjoy the happiness which can be 
never taken from us. 



413 



XL. SERMON. 
THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT. 



" Who art thou % " John i. 22 



To-Day, the Gospel carries us in spirit to the banks of 
the Jordan to hear the first Christian orator, the great 
precursor John telling the people of his time to do penance 
or inevitably perish. Such words were startling. True, 
they expected the Messias, and they knew full well that 
the weeks of David had almost expired; but their ideas 
of the great prophet of the Messias was, that He would 
come with power and with majesty. Their carnal and 
ease-loving minds could not entertain the thought that they 
were to be called upon to perform acts of penance and to 
deny themselves the pleasures of the world, and hence it 
was that when they saw this man clad in skins, and living 
on locusts and wild honey, and making the desert his home ; 
when they heard this bold preacher they were amazed, and 
a boldness until then unheard of, and calling upon them 
" to bring forth fruits worthy of penance," to make straight 
the rough ways, to fill up the valleys of weakmindedness 
and sloth, and to level the hills of pride and ambition; 
when they heard this bold preacher they were amazed, and 
went out to demand of him who he was ? Was he a pro- 
phet ? Was he the Messias ? What right had he to preach 
the baptism of penance ? They had not been accustomed 
to such language, and they would therefore question the 
right of this man to tell them such things. N"ay more, 

413 



XL. SERMON. 

John went farther, for we find him daring to come before 
Herod the Tetrarch and say to him that it was not lawful 
for him to live with his brother's w 7 ife. This was boldness 
that could not be explained, and therefore they demanded : 
Who art thou ? Whence do you come ? Where is your 
mission ? And John answered : " I am but a voice cry- 
ing in the wilderness make straight the way of the Lord ; " 
if you expect the Messias, prepared for His coming, do pen- 
ance for your sins. 

Do you see the parallel? Have you discovered in this 
scene a like one that you daily witness ? Have you not 
heard of a power that also came before a people pagan in 
ideas, idolatrous in worship and lewd in its morals ? 
Have you not heard of that power asserting in the face of 
such a society, that there must be a complete change in 
ideas, in religion, and in morals. Did you not witness a 
conflict going on for centuries, and did you not see the 
advocate of the new order persecuted and hunted down, 
apparently crushed to earth, but only fulfilling the saying : 
" Truth crushed to earth will rise again." During this 
time w r as not the question always asked : whence comes this 
power ? What is its mission ? The cry was that of 
Paganism demanding from Christianity the reason of its 
assertion ! Still more, did we not see that power going 
as did John before the Tetrarch Herod, going before the 
crowned heads of the world, and making known to the 
people their duties when they seemed to forget them. Do 
we not see Theodosius the Emperor met at the Cathedral 
doors by Ambrose the Bishop of Milan, and refused ad- 
mission until he had wiped out with tears of penance the 
bloody deeds that had been done by his command in the 
city of Thessalonica. 

You remember the incident. That city had revolted 
against its governor, the indignation of the Emperor was 
immediately aroused, and he ordered a massacre of all the 
inhabitants of the city without regard to age, sex, or con- 
dition. Seven thousand souls fell victims to that severe 

414 



THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT. 

command. St. Ambrose the Bishop of Milan wrote to 
the Emperor who was in that city and represented to him 
the crime he had committed in condemning the innocent 
with the guilty. He exhorted him to repentance, and 
warned him not to assist at the divine service until he had 
expiated his grave offence. The Emperor was deaf to 
this prohibition, and at the usual hour proceeded to the 
Church. Ambrose heard of his coming and went to meet 
him at the doors, and there he said to him : " Go no further, 
prince ; thou dost not yet feel the enormity of thy crime ; 
reflect a moment. With what eyes dost thou look upon 
the Holy Temple ? Dost thou dare enter into the sanctu- 
ary of an angry God, thy hands still stained with innocent 
blood? Canst thou, a murderer, presume to receive the 
Body of the Lord? Go, go from these sacred precincts 
and add not the crime of sacrilege to that of murder." 
Back went the Emperor obedient to the voice of his Bishop 
from the temple of his God, from that temple which was 
open to the least of his subjects, though closed to him, the 
ruler of the land. 

Again did we not see Lothair take back the wife he had 
rejected. As John to the Tetrarch, so there came a power 
to him when he repudiated his fair and virtuous consort. 
A power that taught him, that though he was an Emperor, 
there were the laws of God to be respected ; a power that 
obliged him to come before his people and to repudiate the 
concubine he had taken to his unlawful embraces, to take 
back his own lawful queen, and to pledge to her again be- 
fore all the people that he never would love another, and 
that he would be faithful to her as a Christian until the 
hour of death. Such deeds were unheard of in Ancient 
history, and now the cry goes up ; what is this power ? 
Whence came this power that dares to rise up against the 
ideas and teachings of the universal world ; that consti- 
tutes itself a teacher aye, and with a pretension hitherto 
unknown, an infallible guide ? Whence comes this 
strange power that even now presumes to preach penance 

415 



XL. SERMON. 

when human ingenuity scouts the very idea in its modern 
inventions ? But a short week shall pass and you will be 
led in spirit to the birthplace of that power, for it is none 
other than the power of Christ. You will be led to con- 
sider one more mortified than John. He too is in a desert, 
for the cold world will have shut Him out ; He came unto 
His own and they received Him not. There, lying in a 
manger, a poor babe unattended and unknown, breathes 
the God of creation. And for His coming it is that we are 
invited to prepare the way ? John asked the people of his 
day to prepare for His first coming. The Christian 
preacher of to-day calls upon you to prepare for His second 
and terrible coming on the last day, the day of general 
Judgment. And it seems to me that w r e could not better 
prepare ourselves than by asking ourselves who we are, and 
what we have to say of ourselves. Answering this question 
we shall have a knowledge of our littleness, and must of 
necessity acknowledge the greatness of God and be led to 
form the resolution of never more sinning, and of doing 
penance for our many and past offences. 

It is a strange phenomenon that man is peculiarly a crea- 
ture of investigation, his life is spent in questioning from 
the day he is ushered into this world until he leaves it. 
Thus the child day after day acquires the names of objects 
that surround it. Men of talent are always inquiring into 
the phenomena that surrounds them. The Geologist 
questions the earth's surface and demands its origin and 
the time of its birth. The Astronomer views the heavenly 
bodies and demands an explanation of their evolutions, 
whilst the Mathematician inquires after their distances. 
The Philosopher catches the emotions, and stays the tumult 
of thoughts that crowd through our minds, and wants to 
know of their beginning ; wdiilst the Theologian goes even 
farther and asks who is God, what of His nature, and what 
of His power and attributes. One question alone in that 
universal examination is omitted: "et tu quis es tu" And 
thou, who art thou. Pardon me, if the answer to this ques- 

416 



THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT. 

tion must be one that will show your own insignificance. 
We shall demand the answer from the testimony and reason 
of mankind and from the revealed word of God. 

Summon we then before us the great ones of earth, 
those who have gone before us, those who may have ex- 
celled so far as to have charmed the w T orld by their deeds, 
and ask the question : who are you ? A being of but a 
few hours in comparison with the age of the world, the 
being of a moment in the eyes of God. Stand before their 
monuments and rich mausoleums and ask : who are you ? 
And they confess, and will not deny how little they are ; 
seven feet of earth is now sufficient for those whose desires 
were not limited by the Universe. To Hanibal, the great 
general, you may say with Juvenal : " Death alone 
confesses the littleness of man." You may with Serverus 
the Imperator take in hand the urn in which the ashes of 
the Romans were preserved and say : " Thou art able to 
contain a man whom the world could not circumscribe." 
Then go and stand before the monument of Alexander, that 
mighty hero who wept, after he made the earth desolate, 
for other worlds to conquer, and you will hear the Philoso- 
phers pass by and thus moralize. You will hear one say : 
" Yesterday and the world itself was not sufficient ; to-day 
five or six feet are plenty." Another addresses the dead 
monarch after this manner : " Yesterday thou couldst 
liberate thousands from death ; to-day thou canst not exer- 
cise that power in thy own behalf." A third will pass 
and tell the dead : " Yesterday you made the earth groan 
with the armies that you marched over its surface, to-day 
it lies heavy on your own form." Again ; listen to the 
cry of anguish that escapes from Anthony, the bosom friend 
of Csesar, that great Roman general, when he saw him cold 
in death before him. " O Mighty Csesar ! And dost 
thou lie so low! Are all thy conquests, glories, spoils, 
shrunk into this little measure. But yesterday, and the 
word of Caesar might have stood against the world ; now 
lies he there and none so poor to do him reverence*" 
27 417 



XL. SERMON. 

But what need of questioning the past, let us confine 
ourselves to the present. Let us ask from the man 
of wealth, the merchant who burdens the seas with his 
merchandise : who art thou ? Who art thou that men 
should covet thy possessions, that men should seek thy 
friendship ? With all thy wealth thou canst not purchase 
one moment of ease from pain in sickness, one moment of 
joy in sorrow, nor one moment of pleasure when anxiety 
weighs thee down; I see disease of some kind seize you, 
you writhe in agony as others ; in .vain do you ask for a 
reprieve from death, it is not granted, and you die. I 
see the hearse before your door, I see your casket taken 
from the house and borne to the cemetery, and I hear the 
earth as it falls with heavy thud upon the coffin lid. I 
turn and ask one of the lookers on : who is this ? What 
was he ? I may hear, in reply, of his great riches ; of the 
many great offices that he filled, of the public works that 
he may have aided in constructing. But if I ask the dead 
one : who art thou ; he will confess and he will not deny : 
" Non Sum/' I am not. 

Fifty years ago the name of Napoleon was sufficient to 
alarm the powers of Europe. You have heard of his 
triumphs, you have read of his victories, you have been 
told of his receptions in the gay capital when returning 
from victory. The populace went out to meet him and 
with cheers cried out : Long live the Emperor ! Bells 
voiced the same sentiment and guns thundered the tale of 
victory. Yet, Napoleon ! who art thou ? Listen high 
monarch to the manner in which a poetess sang of your 
remains when they were borne to Erance for burial. 

" A little urn, a little dust inside, 

Which once outbalanced the large earth. Albeit, 
To-day a four year old child might carry it." 

Take the man of genius and of talent, the man of 
learning, the privileged man, he who cultivates his mind, 

418 



THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT. 

the highest quality of the soul. He who goes about con- 
scious of his intellectual superiority, admired as a prodigy 
and spoken of as a man powerful enough to revolutionize 
the world : ask that man : Man of letters, man of knowl- 
edge, who art thou? A creature, a poor being sprung 
from nothing, glancing for a day about the universe and 
then disappearing, soon to be entirely forgotten. Your 
learning, what is it ? what does it amount to ? Enjoy if 
you will the w T hole of human knowledge, and what is it ? 
Have you explained the mysteries that surround you ? 
Do you even understand the workings of your own mind ? 
Can you explain the feelings and operations of your own 
soul ? Yet you think yourself learned, while your own 
being is a mystery from the beginning of life to its end. 
You are no wiser as regards yourself than the most ignor- 
ant. Call up the gay young maiden who has been taught 
to please, who is the admiration of those about, who arrests 
the gaze of every passer by, the very life and soul of every 
pleasure party : whose absence is mourned in the ball- 
room and whose style and fashion is a subject of conversa- 
tion for the town. Adorn her with every accomplishment, 
decorate her with all the tawdry of fashion and let her 
beauty surpass expression ; then ask her : And thou, ad- 
mired one, who art thou ? Canst thou command this 
beauty ? Will it remain ? Those graces and charms, are 
they at your pleasure ? If some disease were to break 
out in the city you would be alarmed, you would feel that 
your last visit had been made in the fashionable circle, and 
you would fear that they might henceforth speak of your 
disfigured appearance. But grant even that you escape, 
can you stay the fingers of old age from drawing furrows 
in that comely brow ? Can you stay the chill of old age 
from robbing that eye of its lustre, and that cheek of its 
bloom; can you bid the snows of winter fall without 
whitening those locks or the years to fall lightly on those 
shoulders without bending that shapely and erect form ? 
You confess your inability. What then are you? 

419 



XL. SERMON. 

Reason and Humanity have told us of the littleness of 
man. What answer shall we derive from Revelation, from 
the inspired men of God ? We seek a reply from the great 
king David and he tells us of himself: " I am a stranger 
and a sojourner as all my Fathers were." He was but a 
wanderer, journeying from a distant home ; he had heard 
of generations that lived before him that had passed away. 
He recognized that he too was passing as a shadow, that 
others would come after him. Have you ever thought of 
this ? Have you ever thought that you can never rest; 
that whether standing or walking, running or sleeping, you 
are still hurrying onward to the grave. When you enter a 
crowded thoroughfare one thing can be predicted of all ; 
they are hurrying on to their graves. The gay equipage 
that rolls by is hurrying there. The little child, the grown 
up young man, the feeble old woman, all, all are hurrying 
home from this place of sojourn and exile. Well indeed 
might King Solomon, that wisest of men, well might he 
answer to that question : " I am but the guest of one 
day." For man is like a guest who arrives to-day and goes 
away on the morrow. ~No sooner is he born into the world 
than he is met at his baptism by the minister who presents 
him with a lighted taper, telling him to be prepared to 
meet the bridegroom when he chooses to come. You are 
then but a guest, since you have no sooner arrived than you 
are warned that you must be ready to set out again when 
called for. If then we be but guests, if we be but wanderers 
on this earth, why do we act as though we possessed a fixed 
habitation here ? Why stop on the way to gather riches, 
to obtain honors, to seek for the fashions and the follies of 
earth ? What would you say of a man who, in coming 
home from some distant country, would dally on the way- 
side ; gazing idly on riches and jewels that he might re- 
ceive for his home, and yet return penniless. Such, is the 
manner in which many of us are hastening on to eternity. 
We stop by the wayside of the world, taken up with its pass- 
ing shadows, with its wealth, with its pleasures, and with 

420 



THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT, 

its honors. We are warned time and again by the minister 
of God that we are traveling towards eternity, but we heed 
not the advice. We are told that there are riches to be 
acquired here which will be of benefit to us hereafter ; we 
are told of the Sacraments, those fountains of wealth for 
souls that would be happy ; we are told of actions that we 
might perform for which we might receive a reward in 
eternity : but, on we go, jogging leisurely, half listening 
to the maxims of the world, half listening to the voice of 
God, until our journey is ended, and at the very entrance 
into the next world we waken as it were to hear that ques- 
tion put to us by an angry judge ; Who art thou ? What 
hast thou to say of thyself ? Give an account of thy exile 
and of thy time of trial ? We have heard the testimony 
of King Solomon, that wisest of men has answered our 
question. He has told us in sublime words that : " Hu- 
man life passes away like a shadow, and like a post that 
runneth on; and like a ship that passeth through the 
waves, whereof when it is gone by, the trace cannot be 
found, nor the path of its keel in the water ; or as a bird 
that flieth through the air ; of the passage of which no 
mark can be found " or as " an arrow when it is shot at a 
mark, the divided air cometh together again so that the 
passage is not known." 

The prophet Isaias and Holy Job have an answer to give 
to our question. Isaias tells us that : " All flesh is grass 
and all the glory thereof as the flower of the field." Now 
what is there more tender than the grass or more delicate 
than the flower ? The northern blast, cold and chilly, robs 
the flower of its beauty and the grass of its verdure. The 
sun consumes the freshness of the meadow, and kills the 
varied colors of the garden. But yet man is weaker than 
they ; a simple breath will not fade the lily, yet a pestilen- 
tial odor is sufficient for man. 

Ask of some of the dead what killed them, and you will 
be surprised at the accident that was the cause. What 
killed Cassius the great orator ? Cicero answers that on 

421 



XL. SERMON* 

m——mmmmm—mmmmmmm—m 

a certain day after he had made one of his great speeches 
he took a chill and died. What killed Lucia the sister of 
Marcus Aurelius the Emperor ? Aurelius himself tells 
us, that while she was nursing her child and playing with 
it, the babe by accident ran a needle into her breast and she 
died. What killed Fabius the great Roman Praetor who 
at times maintained that he was equal to God, but a hair 
swallowed in his cup of milk. If then our lives hang by so 
slender a thread, if we are liable to be summoned at any 
moment, why is it that we remain in our sins ? Why is it 
that we do not rise from that sleep of death. Why do 
we not present ourselves at the tribunal of penance in order 
that w r e may hold ourselves in readiness. 

Who art thou % " A leaf that is carried away by the 
wind," replies Holy Job. As though he would say; oh! 
the uncertainty of life ! For as the leaf hangs trembling 
in every passing breeze, and as some are torn from the 
branch before others, so also with our lives. We are ever 
bordering on the moment of dissolution, and hence it was 
that Ecclesiasticus said : " Man knoweth not his own 
end : but as fishes are taken with the hook, and as birds 
are caught with the snare, so men are taken in the evil time 
when it shall suddenly come upon them." 

These are words surely that must strike the mind of 
the sinner if we but consider them seriously. They are 
words of inspiration written under the influence of the 
Holy Spirit, written for our use and benefit ; words of 
truth, since they are revealed. Take them therefore with 
you, you who are in a state of sin, and reflect upon them : 
" So men are taken in the evil time," — in their sins — 
" w T hen it " — death — " shall suddenly come upon them." 
Take them then with you for your serious consideration and 
show me the man that will remain in his sin. If there be 
one, he is a man who dares to defy God himself. 

Human testimony and Revelation have shown us the 
littleness of man, that littleness of which we seldom think. 
And here is the reason why the Precursor of Christ had a 

422 



The third Sunday of advent. 

right to go out into the world demanding Penance of that 
small creature for the offences he had offered to his God. 
Here also is the reason why the church of God resists so 
strongly the world to-day. She sees a selfish creature so 
called elated by progress and success wishing to set aside 
God, wishing to get on without Him. Hence it is that she 
must be faithful to her mission, call upon man to reflect 
upon himself, and to do Penance and prepare for the com- 
ing of his Lord. 

During the season of Advent we are called upon to pre- 
pare for His last coming, for His mission of Justice. Our 
Lord has a three fold mission ; a mission of Mercy — 
His coming into the world and dying for us ; a mission of 
Justice, His coming on the last dreadful day to judge man- 
kind ; but there is another which unites in some way these 
two ; a mission which procures for us the fruits of His 
first mission, and disposes us for His second coming. That 
mission is His mission of Grace to the poor soul. It is 
the communing of God with the sinners in love, and it is 
for this mission that I would have you immediately prepare 
as the holy time of Christmas approaches. Prepare your- 
selves then, pious souls, you who live always in the presence 
of God, for to you He hastenes with His gifts and His great- 
est blessings. And do you who have lived far from God, 
hidden as it were from His sight, do not lose courage but 
prepare, for remember this is the time of His mission of 
love. Give place to that Divine Infant in your hearts, 
and do not shut Him out on the eve of that festival as did 
the Jews when His poor Mother walked from door to door 
seeking admission for the night. Give place to Him and 
His blessings, and His peace will fall upon your homes. 



423 



XLI. SERMON. 
THE LAST JUDGMENT. 



Gospel for the Last Sunday of Pentecost. 



St. Matthew, describing the Passion of our Blessed 
Lord, tells us that the Roman Governor Pilate wished to 
release Jesus, and that it was on this account that he said 
to the Jews when they were clamoring for the life of ..our 
Saviour before his door : which shall I release to you Bar- 
abbas or Jesus who is called Christ ? We know full well 
the choice they made, and we know how Pilate remon- 
strated with them; but all to no purpose. There they 
stood, an infuriated mob crying out : " Crucify him, 
crucify him. Be you innocent if you will of the blood of 
this man, we care not. Let His blood be upon us and upon 
our children." 

It is a remarkable fact that, whenever our Lord wished 
to preach a new doctrine to his followers, he would con- 
firm it by a miracle. Thus prior to the Last Supper where 
He instituted the Sacrament of the Altar, we find Him 
multiplying the five loaves and two fishes, and feeding 
with them five thousand people. Again, when He would 
establish the truth that man could forgive sins, we find 
Him addressing the Scribes who had gathered about the 
man sick of the palsy, and who accused Him of blas- 
pheming when He told the man who was sick to be of 
good heart that his sins were forgiven him; we find Him 

424 



THE LAST JUDGMENT. 

confounding them by working a miracle in their very 
sight. " But that you may know that the Son of man 
hath power on earth to forgive sins, He saith to the man 
sick of palsy : " Bise, take up thy bed and go into thy 
house." And he rose up and went into his house. So 
again He would impart some knowledge to His Disciples 
and followers wdth regard to the great day of reckoning, 
the day of the last and final judgment; and in order to 
assure them He prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem. 
We have only then to ask ourselves, has His prophecy with 
regard to the Jewish race been fulfilled ? If so, just so 
surely, will the events predicted in this day's Gospel come 
to pass before the destruction of this world. If the pro- 
phecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem was lite- 
erally accomplished, we may likewise expect to see the pro- 
phecy respecting the day of Judgment fulfilled to the 
letter. Bearing this in mind, we need not fear that w T e 
can overdraw its terrors or that the conception of the 
most learned mind will ever equal the dreadful sublimity 
of the scene which is described in the Gospel of to-day by 
our Lord Himself. 

The tribulation of the Jews was to be such as had not 
been from the beginning of the world, nor was there to be 
anything like it for any people in the future. We have 
read of popular disturbances and of national grievances; 
we have heard of wars and of the devastation of cities ; we 
have seen thrones crumble and people disappear from the 
earth; but none of those equalled the destruction of that 
Jewish city. Then it was, as we read in history that all 
hearts were turned from humanity and compassion. 
Titus, the Boman, drew up his legions about the fated city. 
Thousands had assembled within its walls to celebrate the 
Jewish religious solemnities; and there, shut up in that 
vast prison, murder and famine became the order of the 
day. Hour after hour added to the dying and the dead ; 
the living walked about among them like so many skele- 
tons. Houses became graves, and streets were strewn like 

425 



XLI. SERMON. 

the battle field with dead and dying. The bodies of the 
killed were so numerous, we are told, that the public ways 
were blocked up with them. For forty years men did not 
cease to see strange things in the Temple. Every day 
brought new wonders, so that a famous Rabbi cried out- 
one day: " O Temple ! O Temple ! What causeth thy com- 
motion and why art thou terrified for thyself ?" What 
could be more dreadful than the voice which was heard on 
the day of Pentecost or more fearful than that which re- 
sounded all through the sacred place, " Depart hence ! 
Depart hence ! " was heard from every quarter of the 
building. The Holy Angels who were its protectors and 
guardians announced to the people that they were deserting 
that holy edifice because it had been condemned by God. 
Four years before the war in which Jerusalem was des- 
troyed the Jews received another terrible warning which 
appeared before the eyes of all the people. 

It is related by Josephus the Jewish historian, that a 
certain man went up from the country to Jerusalem to as- 
sist at the feast of the Tabernacles. Suddenly he began 
to cry out, and apparently without reason : " A voice from 
the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, 
a voice against the temple and against Jerusalem ; a voice 
against all the people. " From that time he cried out day 
and night: " Woe, woe, to Jerusalem! " and on festival 
days he redoubled that cry. No other words fell from his 
lips; those who pitied him, those who rebuked, even those 
who gave him the necessaries of life could never obtain 
anything from him but this terrible sentence ; ' ' Woe, woe, 
to Jerusalem ! ' ' He was arrested, led before the magis- 
trates and condemned to be scourged. At every question 
and at every lash he constantly cried out : ' i Woe, woe, 
to Jerusalem! " No tear escaped him, no cry of agony 
save that one. They then dismissed him considering him 
as a madman, and he began to run about the whole country 
ever repeating the same prediction. During the siege he 
shut himself up in the city and w r as seen daily running 

426 



THE LAST JUDGMENT. 

about the walls crying out with all his might : " Woe ! woe ! 
to the city. Woe to the Temple ; Woe to Jerusalem ! " 
until at last he added : " Woe to myself/' and was im- 
mediately struck down by a stone shot by the Romans, thus 
having been at the same time a prophet, a witness, and a 
visible proof of the Divine vengeance resting upon that 
nation. 

The few survivors warred with each other for a few 
ounces of food, parents were seen snatching a bite of meat 
from the hands of their children, and the people were seen 
searching the sewerage of the city for something to eat. 
Nay, more, we are told of a still sadder sight which gives 
us some idea of the destruction which famine was causing 
in their midst. A woman, overcome by hunger and re- 
duced to despair, took her child, still at the breast, and 
looking at it with frenzied eyes exclaimed: " Unhappy 
wretch, for what do I reserve thee ? To die of hunger or 
to become a slave of the Romans ? " And that mother cut 
the throat of her child, roasted it, ate a part, and hid the 
rest. The rioters searching for food about the place were 
attracted by the odor of flesh cooking; they entered the 
house, and threatened to kill the woman if she did not 
show them what she had concealed. She laid before them 
what remained of her child, and seeing them transfixed 
with horror, said : " You can certainly eat of it, if I have 
done so ; it is my child. It is I who have killed it. You 
are neither more delicate than a woman, nor more tender 
hearted than a mother." And those soldiers accustomed 
as they were to sights of cruelty ran from the house trem- 
bling with fear. In the recital of such deeds who would 
not recognize the fulfillment of the prediction made by 
Christ, and the just punishment of a deicidal people. His 
blood came indeed upon them and upon their children, for 
in all history we can find no people like them. 

We have seen nations destroyed and so destroyed as to 
leave no vestige, but the Jews still wander over the earth 
testifying in spite of themselves to the truth of the predic- 

427 



XLI. SERMON. 

tion pronounced upon them by Jesus Christ our Lord ; shall 
we dare question then the truth of the destruction of the 
world at the last day ? A day will come when each one 
of us shall be called upon to say farewell to this earth : a 
day shall come whose morning shall find us in the enjoy- 
ment of health, but whose evening shall veil our eyes in 
the darkness of death ; or a night will come whose shades 
we shall behold slowly gathering, but whose darkness we 
shall never see dispelled. That day of transit from life 
to death and from death to life again will surely come, and 
so surely will it come that no man has as yet had the hardi- 
hood and the boldness to deny the truth " that we must 
one day die." But the great question is: how are we pre- 
pared for that day, how are we prepared for the judgment 
that must follow it ? A day will come, says the Holy 
Scripture, when those who are in their graves shall hear 
the voice of the Son of God; when the bodies that have 
gone to decay, whose elements may perhaps have been 
carried about by the winds of Heaven, will again assume 
shape and form and stand before their God to give an ac- 
count of every act whether good or bad, and receive from 
him a reward or punishment. The signs which are to 
precede the last judgment are varied and many. Christ 
himself narrates them and tells us : " That there will be 
such tribulations as were not from the beginning of the 
creation." Could we but picture to ourselves the many 
tribulations that have befallen the different people of this 
earth since its creation, and the many and dire afflictions 
with which they have been visited, we would not have even 
then a faint representation of what must be when that last 
great day of reckoning shall approach. 

War, with its troop of attendant horrors, will then sweep 
over the universe; nation shall rise against nation and 
kingdom against kingdom. Brother shall stand against 
brother and betray him ; father against son ; and children, 
forgetful of the many kind offices of their parents, will 
not hesitate to stain their hands with the blood of those 

428 



THE LAST JUDGMENT. 

who gave them life. False prophets will arise and tell 
you: " Lo, here is Christ; " but remember that you stand 
steadfast for " behold I have told you all things." Nor 
will this be the end ; the very earth will groan and shake, 
mountains heretofore resting upon a fixed and immovable 
basis will then begin to totter and threaten destruction; 
the bellowing of beasts and wails of men will pierce the 
very Heavens; the sun stripped of his effulgence will shed 
but a faint light upon the surrounding horrors, and the 
moon despoiled of her beauty will roll through the heavens 
a blackened mass foreboding the destruction of time. Then 
man shall look for light in vain; for the stars in the 
Heavens will be hurled through the immensity of space as 
if propelled by an evil spirit bent upon the destruction of 
the universe. Lightnings blinding the eye will rend the 
skies, and thunder deafening the ear will roll with terrific 
majesty above their heads. Then indeed will the time 
have come when they shall say, in the words of Holy Writ : 
a to the mountains, fall upon us; and the hills, cover us." 
" And they shall go," says that same inspired word, " into 
the holes of the rock and into the caves of the earth, from 
the face and the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of 
His majesty when He shall rise up to strike the earth." 

But terror of terrors ! The sign of the Son of Man ap- 
pears in the Heavens, the sign of hope and of consolation, 
the sign of salvation to the just. Will there then O Lord, 
be time for mercy ? Has not the reign of mercy yet ex- 
pired? Alas, it is too late; my mercy has too often ad- 
dressed you, how often has it called upon you and you 
would not ? How long has it awaited you and you would 
not ? Fall now into the hands of my justice. " How ter- 
rible it is to fall into the hands of the living God." " Then 
shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of 
Heaven with great power and majesty." No longer the 
babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, but The Judge sur- 
rounded by the majesty of a God, no longer the criminal 
hooted by the rabble but a Judge praised by the celestial 

429 



XLI. SERMON. 

choirs; no longer the merciful Jesus dying for us upon 
the Cross, but the Just Judge dealing out His punishments 
to an ungrateful people. " For what shall I do when God 
shall rise to judge, and when He shall examine what shall 
I answer Him ? " At the command of the Angel of the 
Lord: " Arise ye dead and come to judgment," armies of 
mortals range themselves in sight, the graves open and 
throw forth their tenants ; millions who have slept the 
sleep of ages. The sea with sullen roar dashes forth its 
dead, who for centuries were in its mighty depths. Aye, 
even hell gives up its dead and clamors to have them back 
again. 

Contemplate that multitude, contemplate the stars that 
stud the Heavens, the sand on the seashore, and you may 
have some conception of that vast throng. There meet 
again the mighty armies that once met in the shock of 
deadly conflict, there the children of all time and of all 
nations, of all tribes and of all people are collected ; there 
stands our common Father; the patriarchs and sages of 
old, the prophets and heroes of God's chosen people; the 
Fathers and Doctors of the Early Church ; in a word there 
stand all who ever trod the face of the earth. All, with- 
out exception, all go to make up that numberless multitude. 
And O, what dread will seize upon them, the dread of that 
Judge who is about to weigh the least of their failings. 
His very appearance will strike them with fear, for they 
will recognize in Him qualities not to be found in the 
judges of earth. His infinite knowledge, His inexorable 
justice, His inexpressible might ; these will strike fear into 
every breast. All will behold in Him a knowledge which 
will expose their greatest crimes, and their most secret 
thoughts; a knowledge that cannot be deceived, and that 
can scrutinize the most hidden recesses of the heart. " For 
there is nothing hid that shall not be revealed, nor secret 
that shall not be known." He it is, says St. Gregory; " to 
whom whatever has been shut is laid open, to whom what- 
ever has been hidden is revealed, to whom silence itself 

430 



THE LAST JUDGMENT. 

confesses, and the mind speaks without a voice," they will 
behold in Him a justice that is to be avenged upon them, 
a justice that shall equally expose before the gaze of all 
the crimes the thoughts and the hearts of each." " Thy 
justice is justice forever and thy law is the truth." 

They will behold in Him a power that is infinite, which 
can know no resistance; a power that can punish them 
above all others, and one which is able immediately to 
execute the sentence. O ye hypocrites, throw off that veil 
with which your actions have been so long covered; ac- 
knowledge your crimes, O sinners, for the time will come 
when your sins will cry out against you. Do you, impure 
man, stand forth in all your wicked immodesty, for you 
can now no longer deceive yourself and think that your 
crimes are unknown. Parents, behold the sins of your 
children ! Is this the manner in which you cared for those 
souls that were given to you in the fullness of innocence? 
Your bad example has caused them to rise up now in judg- 
ment against you, your indulgence forces them to condemn 
you in the presence of your God. And you, drunkard; 
you who promised again and again to abstain from that 
cup of sin and shame, you who indulged to the last moment 
of your life your passion for drink; how shalt it be 
with you when you shalt thirst in the flames of hell. Then 
from that ungrateful multitude the cry of despair will go 
up : Yes Lord, woe unto us, we have all sinned, we have all 
offended thy divine majesty. But that confession comes 
too late, the time of mercy has expired, the reign of eternal 
justice has begun. There was a time when, if you had 
cast yourselves before your Lord in the Tabernacle and 
accused yourselves in this manner from the bottom of your 
heart, He would have taken you to His bosom as a tender 
Father, He would have told you to be of good cheer, He 
would have said : " My child, be or good courage, thy sins 
are forgiven thee, go now and sin no more." But alas, you 
have allowed that time to pass, it has gone never to return. 
In the twinkling of an eye, will your sins appear before 

431 



XLI. SERMON. 

you in all their malice, and Oh ! what a terrible reckoning 
will be yours, what a terrible account you will have to give ; 
think of it, you who remain a lifetime in the state of sin, 
think of it you who do nothing for Heaven ; what will you 
say to that Judge who sees all and knows all. What ex- 
cuse will you offer for the crimes imputed to you on that 
day when the Judge arises and turning to those on His 
right tells them in words of unutterable sweetness : 
" Come possess the kingdom prepared for you." Come 
you blessed, come you, my friends, come you who have 
taken up my cross and followed me through life despite 
the temptations that assailed you, despite the raileries of 
a cold deceiving world ; come enter the kingdom prepared 
for you from the foundation of the world. Come you Holy 
Apostles and confessors, come you crowned martyrs, and 
spotless virgins, come you poor and meek of earth, come 
and enjoy the recompense of your virtues. Then turning 
to those on His left with a look of indignation, and a voice 
of thunder he will say to them : " Depart you cursed ; " 
you have despised my authority, you have known my com- 
mandments and you have trampled them under foot, my 
graces were offered to you and you abused them ; in vain 
did I come upon earth to show you the way of Salvation ; 
in vain did I bleed for you upon the cross ; in vain did I 
establish my Church; in vain did I offer you my sacra- 
ments; in vain did my ministers endeavor to recall you 
from your life of sin ; in vain did I give you all possible 
helps for your salvation. You have despised all, ignored 
me and my commands, obeyed your passions and evil de- 
sires, become slaves of Satan : " Depart therefore ye 
cursed into everlasting fire." 

Need we go on to describe the cries of despair, the sep- 
aration of friends, the leavetakings of children from their 
parents and of parents from their children, and of hus- 
bands from their wives, and wives from their husbands. 
Need we tell you of the joys of the blessed, of the sublime 
chorus welling up, never to be hushed as long as God re- 

432 



THE LAST JUDGMENT. 

mains God. Behold then, my dear friends, something of 
that last day. These are the events which will accompany 
that final moment, a moment of happiness for the blessed, 
but a moment of despair for the wicked. 

But when, when shall that day be upon us ? " But of 
that day and hour no one know T eth, no not even the Angels 
of Heaven ; but when you shall see these things know that 
it is nigh, even at the door." The day is unknown to 
human wisdom, but certain it is that it will come. 
" Heaven and earth shall pass away but my Word shall 
not pass away." Look about the world to-day and see the 
falling off from the faith, consider the disorders and the 
scandals which we witness daily, hear the low rumblings 
of war that are abroad. Seeing the world cutting loose 
from Christ and from his Vicar, despising the Church 
which He set up for their salvation ; seeing the entire world 
on the eve of a revolution which would seem to threaten it 
with destruction; seeing all this, considering all this, are 
we going too far in asserting that we fear that the reign of 
Antichrist has already begun, and that the beginning of 
the end appears to show upon the horizon. 

Practically it matters little when that Great Day will 
come, but there is one day for which we should be pre- 
pared, if on that day we would stand upon the right of 
our Blessed Lord ; that day is the day of our death. For 
remember that there, upon your bed, while your friends are 
still about you, while they are preparing your body for 
burial, judgment will have been passed upon you and your 
fate for eternity will have been settled. Where then will 
your conscience place you; this is the practical question. 
To make it the more so, we ask you; if you were called 
upon to-day at this very moment to render an account of 
your stewardship, where would that conscience of yours 
place you ? Would it be to the right or to the left ? Would 
the sentence be: " come you blessed," or: " depart you 
cursed." Ah, if on that last day you would be found 
upon the right, prepare for the day of your death, and to 
28 433 



XLI. SERMON. 

prepare for your death think seriously and think often 
of the general judgment, and tremble at the thought. 
Greater than you have done so. St. Chrysostom was 
moved to tears at the thought of it, and St. Jerome tells 
us that he always heard that dreadful trumpet sounding 
in his ears. Ah, if these thoughts could be kept in view, 
if we would not allow them to be put aside by the cares 
and the foolish money-getting of the world, there is not a 
man in this congregation who might not look forward and 
assure himself, in so far as we can be certain of our future, 
that on that day he will be found upon the right of our 
Blessed Lord, hearing the consoling words : " Come you 
blessed enjoy the kingdom of my Father prepared for you 
from the foundation of the world." 



434' 



XLII. SERMON. 

SIN. 



c< The wages of sin is deaths Rom. vi. 23. 



We intend to say a few words to you upon sin, its 
nature and its enormity. We think this necessary be- 
cause if you form your conscience it is necessary that you 
should know what sin is so that you may avoid it. We 
think it necessary because there are many persons who 
come to Confession and accuse themselves of things that 
are not sins in their particular case, and remain silent 
about those which are really sins. In order then that you 
may have a true conscience, that is, in order that you may 
be able to form a true judgment and be able to say whether 
or not you have committed a sin in this or that particular 
case; let us first inquire into the nature of sin, and its 
different kinds. In order that we may have an abhorrence 
and an aversion for sin, let us consider the enormity of 
sin. What then is sin ? 

This is the question the Catechism puts to us in our 
youth, and the answer is that sin is any wilful thought, 
word, or deed against, or omission of the law of God. 
Consequently whenever we go to Confession there are 
four things that we have to examine ourselves upon par- 
ticularly. First of all: what are our thoughts, are they 
impure, uncharitable or revengeful, do we harbor feelings 
of anger, of hatred and revenge? Are we wishing that 

435 



XLI1. SERMON. 

we had the opportunities of this or that particular sin; 
for we must remember that Jesus Christ Himself has told 
us that such a one hath already committed sin in his heart. 
What are our words, to what use do we put our tongues ? 
In how many ways do we abuse the beautiful faculty of 
language which God has given us ? Are our words blas- 
phemous, do they shock the ear of the modest and pure of 
heart ? Are they like the edged sword cutting and hurting 
the tender feelings of others, are they sowing discord and 
dissension among friends and neighbors ? Our deeds and 
omissions what are they, what are our actions with regard 
to God ? Are we endeavoring to do all that He expects of 
us, and with regard to our neighbors are we doing all that 
God requires of us ? Do we omit doing that we should do 
in virtue of our state of life ; and let me remind you my 
friends that persons scarcely ever think of examining them- 
selves upon the omission of their different duties. Parents 
for instance scarcely ever think of asking themselves 
whether they are sure their children learn their prayers, 
whether or not their children go to Mass and Sunday 
School. So much then for the subject matter of your 
examination when you come to Confession. Our thoughts, 
our words, our deeds and omissions, all must be examined 
into. 

But there is one very important word that we must not 
forget to explain in the definition which is given of sin, 
and that is the word wilful, our thoughts, our words, and 
deeds must be wilful violations of God's law otherwise they 
are not sins, now please bear in mind that you never com- 
mit a sin in thought, word or deed unless that thought, 
w T ord or deed be a wilful violation of God's law. If we 
bear this in mind we will not be confusing and confounding 
temptations with sin. None of us is above and beyond 
temptation, even Christ allowed Himself to be tempted. 
One will have one sort of temptation, another person will 
have another sort of temptation, but temptation is not sin, 
it is only giving wav wilfully to the temptation that makes 

436 



SIN. 

sin. Hence in examining our thoughts we must see if 
they were wilful violations of all of God's laws, we must 
see whether or not we may have placed ourselves wilfully 
in the way of sin, or whether we attempted to rid ourselves 
of the temptation by prayers or diverting our mind, if not, 
very likely Ave have sinned, for we have at least exposed our- 
selves to the danger of falling. . So too in examining our 
words, we must see if they were wilfully uttered, and here 
we must guard against a mistake into which people who 
are in the habit of using sinful language, or of cursing or 
swearing might be led. For instance a young man who 
has been in the habit of swearing for months or years, 
certainly does not think of what he is saying, very often 
when he makes use at times of some terrible oath. And 
the reason he does not advert to it is because he has be- 
come so accustomed to it that oaths and curses slip from 
him before he is aware of it. Now such a one might say 
to himself when I curse or swear I do not mean it, I do 
not do it wilfully and therefore I do not sin, but no, such 
is not the case, that person sins, he has formed a habit of 
swearing and he knows that he has acquired a habit of 
swearing and yet he does not endeavor to break himself of 
it. That person is guilty for he is bound and obliged to 
overcome the bad habit that he has fallen into. 

So when we examine ourselves upon our actions we must 
likewise ask ourselves if they are wilful violations of the 
law. Now upon this matter it is very strange into what 
mistakes people sometimes fall, for instance they may 
accuse themselves in confession that they have missed Mass 
some three or four times since they last went to confession, 
and on inquiry sickness is often the cause. Now surely 
staying away from Mass when sick is not wilful and there- 
fore not a sin and need not be mentioned in confession. 
Or again ; a mother has a sick child which she cannot leave. 
In cases of this kind the precept of Charity binds the 
mother to care for her child. There are two precepts, the 
precept of Charity, binding the Mother to care for her in- 

437 



XLII. SERMON. 

f ant ; and the precept of the Church, binding her to hear 
Mass; and she cannot do both; she asks herself which is 
the higher law, the law of God or the law of the Church ? 
and immediately her conscience will tell her the law of 
God, the law of Charity which obliges us to minister to 
the wants of others when in need. If both precepts be 
the law of God, then your conscience will determine for 
you from the circumstances which you should follow, but 
always remember that God does not require impossibilities 
from you and that consequently whenever you have two 
duties to perform such as I have mentioned, God does not 
require you to do both, which would be impossible and 
consequently you do not sin when you omit one of them. 

Sin then is any wilful violation of God's law. But how 
many kinds of sin are there ? There are tw T o kinds of sin, 
Original sin and Actual sin. Original Sin is the sin in 
which we are born, the sin which is taken away in Baptism 
when we are made Christians and Children of God. 
Actual Sin is divided into mortal and venial sin. Now in 
confession we are obliged under pain of making a bad con- 
fession to tell all mortal sins, but not so with venial sin. 
It is always better to tell even all venial sins in confession, 
though if we conceal a venial sin in confession yet our con- 
fession would not be bad if we had the other dispositions. 
The enormity of mortal sin and the offence which is offered 
to God by one who commits it is something that the mind 
of man will never be able to conceive, for to understand 
that, we would have to comprehend the Infinite attributes 
of God, we would have to comprehend God Himself. Sin 
is an act of treason, it is a defiance that is hurled by the 
creature at the Creator, it is man in his littleness striving 
to usurp the greatness of God. It is man's will substituted 
for God's will, it is man denying his dependency on God ; 
say what we w T ill, we cannot measure its enormity, we can- 
not find words to express it, we have to seek some other 
means to arrive at the knowledge of the enormity of Mor- 
tal sin. If we would ascertain the gravity of an offence 

438 



SIN. 



committed against the state, we would ask what punish- 
ment it inflicted upon the culprit, if we were told that he 
received for a punishment but the short term of ten or 
twelve days in a prison we would think his offence a trifling 
one, whereas if we were told that he received as a punish- 
ment, to be condemned to a dark dungeon for life we 
would say that his crime must be a grievous one, supposing 
as we do that the state acted justly in inflicting the punish- 
ment. Now in the same manner if we would have an idea 
of the enormity of mortal sin let us likewise ask in what 
way does God punish the crime of mortal sin, and as God 
is just, so we can form some idea of the gravity of that 
offence from the manner in which He has punished this 
sin even in this world. 

Why is it that to-day we see so much misery in the 
world, so that no matter what men do, no matter how they 
seek to relieve the distressed, still men groan under ills 
and misfortunes, since first the world began ? The philan- 
thropist boasts that his theory will afford happiness to 
mankind. The Economist in his studies has found out a 
way of equalizing the supply and the demands of indivi- 
duals so that men will be happy. The Socialists in our 
day trumpet forth an era of prosperity for the world, and 
tell us that there will be no more wars, no more human 
butcheries, that the difference of people will be settled by 
arbitration, all this we are told so confidentially that the 
originators of such views grow angry with us if we dare to 
contradict them. They are men well versed in the sciences, 
they are intelligent, the leaders of thought and should be 
respected for their good intentions, but in theorizing they 
forget one thing, they omit one fact ; they forget that the 
curse of God is upon the world in consequence of the first 
sin; they forget that God has said to all mankind in the 
person of Adam, " because thou hast harkened to the voice 
of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree that thou shouldst 
not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work: with labor and 
toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life : thorns 

439 



XLI1. SERMON. 

and thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shalt eat 
the herbs of the earth. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou 
eat bread till thou return to the earth out of which thou 
wast taken." Sin is upon the world and with sin the curse, 
and the curse is punishment, so that men, do what they 
will, cannot banish misery from the world, the ills of life 
will ever remain and as in the past so in the future, genera- 
tions yet unborn shall endure famine, war, pestilence and 
death, even as every age has done since first the flight of 
time began. Here then at a mere glance we have a won- 
derful idea of the gravity of mortal sin for we see that the 
misery and the sufferings of this life are all the conse- 
quences of that one sin committed by our first parents. 

But if we take up particular instances of punishment 
that are given us in the Scriptures we will be able to realize 
to some extent the hatred which God bears it on account of 
its enormity. What was it that brought on the terrible 
deluge that we read of when the whole world was buried 
under the angry waters of the heavens. None but one 
single family escaped that terrible scourge, the infant just 
opening its eyes upon the world, the young child upon 
whom reason was just beginning to dawn, the aged and 
the infirm, the sick and those in the possession of buoyancy 
of life, all were swept from the face of the earth, because 
as the Scripture tells us God saw that the wickedness of 
man was great upon the earth and that all the thoughts of 
the heart were bent upon evil and therefore it repented 
Him that He had made man, and being inwardly touched 
with sorrow of heart He said, I will destroy man whom I 
have made from the face of the earth. Again when the 
sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was multiplied and became 
exceedingly grievous the Lord we are told could no longer 
bear with it, and Pie cried to heaven for vengeance, and the 
Lord rained down upon Sodom and Gomorrah fire and 
brimstone: and He destroyed those cities and all the 
country about, all the inhabitants of the cities and all 
things that spring from the earth. Again we read that 

440 



SIN. 



when Core and his companions rose up against Moses and 
Aaron who had been appointed by God Himself over the 
people, and when they sought to usurp the priesthood, we 
are told that the earth broke asunder, and her mouth 
opened and devoured them with all their substances and 
they went down alive into hell. From these and many 
like examples that the Scripture gives us can we ever 
imagine or portray the guilt of mortal sin in the sight of 
God. 

There is one other punishment with which the punish- 
ment of this life cannot be compared, the punishment 
which w 7 as visited upon Core and his companions viz : that 
they went down alive into hell. Hell is a prison that sin 
has made for those who die without being in the state of 
grace, and of its punishments, imagination in its highest 
flights can never give us an idea. We know that once 
in that dreadful abode the soul is ever deprived of the 
sight of God, and that it is tormented by fire ; we know 
moreover that it is everlasting in its duration that it will 
remain as long as God remains God, so long as heaven re- 
mains with its joys with the bright souls who have won 
for themselves its glory by struggling upon this world for 
a few short years, so long will hell endure with its wails, 
with its blighted souls wdio forfeited the everlasting joys 
of Heaven for the few pleasures of earth. Say what we 
will we cannot exaggerate its torments no more than we 
can exaggerate the joys of Heaven and we are certain that 
we cannot exaggerate the joys of Heaven, for St. Paul 
tells us " that eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath 
it entered into the heart of man what things God hath pre- 
pared for them that love Him." And so in like manner 
might we say, " that eye hath not seen nor ear heard, 
neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive 
the punishments prepared for the reprobate." But even 
with all this we have not the highest idea that we can form 
of the enormity of mortal sin, to study it we must ascend 
the heights of Calvary and gaze upon the cross of Christ, 

441 



XLII. SERMON. 

Once the human race had fallen in the person of Adam, 
God in His justice might have left us, as He left the fallen 
angels to their unhappy doom, but God the Son the Second 
Person of the blessed Trinity in His love and His mercy 
would become man still remaining God, and He would pay 
for us the debt demanded for our forgiveness, and what 
was the debt? Why that He should become a victim, a 
holocaust to be offered up for the sins of the world; in 
this way He would purchase for us means whereby we 
might obtain our salvation if we would not fail to use 
those means. Count the sum that was paid for our re- 
demption and you will find that you were ransomed not 
" with corruptible gold or silver," but with the precious 
blood of Christ as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled. 

Count then His sorrows and His suffering and reflect 
upon the fact that they are the sorrows and sufferings of 
a God-man, and you can estimate more closely the malice 
and heinousness of the sin. He comes into this world and 
comes as a beggar, " the foxes have holes and the birds of 
the air nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his 
head." He is driven from the habitations of men and born 
in a cold stable, and as He comes into the world in the 
form of a beggar so too does he depart from the world, for 
the grave in which He is buried is not His own ; take up 
His hidden life of thirty years and consider Him laboring 
for His daily sustenance even as the poorest upon earth, 
struggling day after day with His foster father to keep 
starvation from the door. Again His years of public life 
what were they ? His was a life of labor, He was going 
about doing good, curing the sick and the infirm, healing 
the lame and the blind, going to the grave and commanding 
the dead to quit their winding sheets, and for all this no 
thanks, but insults and blasphemies, surrounded by men 
who sought to ensnare Him in His speech or maintain that 
He did these wonders through the power of the devil. To- 
day we find Him preaching to crowds on the mountain 
side, calling them to repentance, and on the morrow we 

442 



SIN. 



find Him fatigued and worn out reclining on the deck of 
a little vessel snatching a few hours of sleep. He was 
doing the will of His father. He was saving souls and this 
was His food and rest, but yet these sacrifices were not 
sufficient ; He must enter upon His passion, He must die 
ere the debt be paid for man's redemption. Count them, 
one by one, His dreadful torments from His agony in the 
garden till He expires upon the cross, behold him buffetted, 
blind-folded, spit upon ; see Him scourged at the pillar, 
tormented wifh a crown of thorns, and nailed to a disgrace- 
ful cross and yet despite all this consider the humility, the 
meekness, the patience and above all the infinite love for 
our souls, with which He bears these sufferings. Behold 
to what an extent His love for us goes, when He bows down 
His head and expires upon the cross for our salvation, and 
then ask, why this terrible tragedy of suffering and blood % 
The answer comes, for sin, for your sins, and for mine. 



443 



XLIII. SERMON. 
CONDITION FOR THE WORTHY RECEPTION OF HOLY 
COMMUNION. 



11 But let a man prove himself ; and so let him eat of that 
bread, and drink of the chalice. For he that eateth and drink- 
eth unworthily eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not 
discerning the body of the Lord. 

1 Cor. xi. 28, 29. 



There is an old lesson that you have often heard in 
your youth, an old lesson that you have often glanced at 
in your Catechisms. We are asked there with what dis- 
positions we should receive the Sacrament of the Euchar- 
ist and we are told that the dispositions are two fold ; cer- 
tain dispositions of the body and certain dispositions of 
the soul. Now the dispositions of the body are familiar 
to us all; we know what they are, and hence we will 
barely mention them. In the first place we must be fast- 
ing from midnight, we must neither eat nor drink any- 
thing whatever from midnight, till Ave have communi- 
cated; then, and then only, are we allowed to break our 
fast ; hence, if by accident and through f orgetf ulness we 
should have taken any food or drink, no matter how small 
the quantity may be, if we have swallowed it we should ab- 
stain from going to Holy Communion on that day under 
pain of committing mortal sin. Now it is strange what 
questions are asked the priests many times upon this 
point ; you will be told for instance sometimes by a person 
that they accidentally held a pin in their mouth for a few 

444 



WORTHY RECEPTION OF HOLY COMMUNION. 

moments and the question comes, " Can I go to Commu- 
nion ? " or another will say " I washed my mouth, can I 
go to Holy Communion ? " Now these are questions that 
are asked frequently and let the answer be known once 
and for all that you do not break your fast unless you 
swallowed some food or drank some liquid; and conse- 
quently, you may and can communicate, whenever you do 
not eat or drink. But if we swallow any food, or drink 
any liquid as we said before, no matter how small the 
quantity may be, we break our fast and must not commu- 
nicate that morning. There is but one single exception 
to this rule and this is when a person is sick and in danger 
of death, then, and then only, Holy Communion may be 
administered to the sick person without fasting; but only 
to those who are sick and in danger of death. This is 
another point with which people would seem to be famil- 
iar; but yet, a priest may go on a sick call this evening, 
and he may tell the people of that house that he is coming 
in the morning with the Blessed Sacrament, that the per- 
son need not fast, and yet he may not get there before 
noon of the following day and he will still find the person 
fasting ; hence, the best thing to do in such cases is to ask 
the priest before leaving, whether or not the person is to 
fast till he comes the following day. And now while speak- 
ing of this we may tell you that there is a great show of 
negligence on the part of people who come to us to visit 
their sick. They come to the house and leave the message 
that the person is very sick ; dangerously ill ; they are told 
that the priest will go there immediately; that he will 
bring the Blessed Sacrament with him, and that he will 
anoint the person. In a few hours after, the priest calls 
and there is not a single thing prepared for him ; in fact, 
there are people who do not seem to know that he requires 
anything; if they were told that some grand personage 
were going to pay them a visit, or some charitable lady, 
they would be all anxiety in preparing the house, in hav- 
ing it look neat and tidy for the coming of such a one; 

445 



XLIII. SERMON. 

but when they are told that the Blessed Sacrament, and 
the Holy Oils are going to be brought there, when they 
are told that Jesus Christ Himself is coming to visit 
them, there is not a single thing prepared. The priest 
has to stand there, and get them to spread a clean cloth 
upon the table; he has to ask for Holy Water, and there 
is a chase to a neighbor's house for it; he asks for a can- 
dle and that too has to be borrowed, he asks for a few drops 
of fresh w T ater to give the sick person after Holy Commu- 
nion to enable him to swallow the consecrated particle, 
and that too has to be sent after. This is no exaggerated 
picture, it is the experience of any priest who has gone 
but on a few sick calls; and it is too bad that it should 
be so. You may excuse it, and say that the sickness was 
sudden ; that it was for want of thought and so on ; but, 
what excuse will you offer for the house in which you can 
not find a drop of Holy Water ? What excuse for not 
having a single Blessed Candle in the house ? These are 
things that cannot be excused. A Blessed Candle may do 
you for years and Holy Water can be procured at any 
time; hence, there is no excuse for such negligence. 

But if we have to condemn the negligence of some, we 
have at the same time to commend the thoughtfulness of 
others, of people who are filled with love for our Blessed 
Lord. You w T ill enter their homes and it is a pleasure 
to bring them the Blessed Sacrament for you will find the 
little oratory erected, with not a candle but with candles ; 
you will find it adorned with flowers, and the neatness of 
the linens that are placed upon the table compare with the 
neatness of the church tabernacle. These are people who 
know the teachings of the church, people with the strong 
faith of the Apostles and of the early Christians ; people 
whose faith expresses the love that is within their hearts for 
the Blessed Sacrament. 

In the second place, what are the dispositions of the 
soul? With what sentiments should we approach Holy 
Communion, in order that it may be profitable and that 

446 



WORTHY RECEPTION OF HOLY COMMUNION. 

we may experience its effects ? We have but to come to 
Our Blessed Lord as He comes to us in this mystery of 
His love; He comes to us, in all His infinite perfections; 
He comes in His infinite wisdom, comes in His infinite 
purity, comes in His infinite greatness, comes in His in- 
finite goodness. Now what do these infinite perfections 
of God demand of us? Consider His wisdom and His 
knowledge. He knows all things ; the past that for us is 
gone, never to return; the present which is but a pass- 
ing moment; the future with its train of possible revela- 
tions ; all this is actually present before the mind of God. 
It is not limited, the most minute actions of individual 
men, the hidden thoughts of the heart, the thoughts of 
Angel, Archangel and Seraphim, all are before Him, noth- 
ing escapes His all-seeing eye; nothing is beyond His in- 
finite comprehension; He is wisdom itself. How then 
are we to honor this perfection of God in the Blessed 
Sacrament? 

We may reason from analogy and we shall find that we 
must honor it by faith. If we were shown a man who 
had explored the whole field of learning; who had made 
a thorough study of history; whose mind remembered 
every date and incident that occurred since the days of 
Herodotus; a man who had studied and so sounded the 
depths of every system of philosophy, conflicting as they 
are; a man who had read the sciences with a critical judg- 
ment, carefully discriminating between truth and specula- 
tion ; if we were shown such a man, in what greater way 
could we acknowledge his wisdom than by receiving with 
all due deference and without contradiction whatever he 
might have to say upon these different subjects. So in 
like manner when we wish to honor the wisdom, the 
knowledge of Christ, we have to bow our heads in sub- 
mission, saying : " I believe ; God help thou my unbe- 
lief," and therefore since thou who knowest all things, 
dost say to me : " This is my body, this is my blood," 
without question or contradiction, I receive it as the truth, 

447 



XLIII. SERMON. / 

because it proceeds irom one who cannot deceive. My 
faith, my belief, must honor the infinite wisdom concealed 
beneath the sacramental species; I must let pass before 
my mind's eye that grandest of scenes, in the life of Our 
Blessed Lord, when seated for the last time He took bread 
into His venerable hands and breaking it said : " This is 
my body ; take ye and eat ; " and taking the chalice filled 
with wine, he said : " this is my blood which shall be shed 
for you, and for many unto the remission of sins; take 
ye and drink. " I must let that scene pass before me, and 
I must study the firm faith of the Apostles who took the 
species of bread and ate ; who took the species of wine and 
drank ; not doubting the words of Christ ; not questioning 
his assertion and like them too I must receive Holy Com- 
munion: firmly believing as they believed, that I am re- 
ceiving the second person of the Blessed Trinity, Jesus 
Christ true God and true Man ; the same Christ who was 
born in a stable, the same Christ who lived thirty-three 
years upon earth, the same Christ who died the ignomini- 
ous death of the cross amid the rocks of Calvary. This 
must be my faith and my conviction every time that I 
kneel before the altar to receive the Blessed Sacrament. 
And before that lively faith that bids me see my God be- 
neath the Sacramental species, all coldness and indiffer- 
ence will disappear and I will long to be united to my 
God. 

But not only does our Blessed Lord come in His wis- 
dom; He likewise comes in His infinite Purity. And to 
honor that perfection we must approach Him cleansed 
from all defilement; we must approach Him in a pure 
and holy manner. In the old law we read that when God 
gave the commandments to Moses upon Sinai He ordered 
Moses to tell the people to purify their souls and bodies: 
and during two days to wash their garments and arrange 
them in order, for on the third day He would come on the 
mountain. And again, we read that when the prophet 
Isaiah was sent to announce the word of God it was nec- 

448 



WORTHY RECEPTION OF HOLY COMMUNION. 

essary for an Angel to purify his lips with a burning 
coaL Now if such were the purity and the sanctity re- 
quired of the Israelites when they stood upon the moun- 
tain on which the law was given; and if the tongue of 
Isaiah was to be sanctified by an Angel before he should 
announce the word of God, what should be the sanctity 
of the Christian who receives upon his tongue and into 
his heart the very living God Himself. If the Blessed 
Virgin the Mother of God had to be born free from the 
stain of original sin, if her soul had to be adorned with 
all the graces that filled the souls of Angels, Archangels, 
and Cherubim in heaven: if she had to be sanctified in 
order that she might bear our Blessed Lord in her virginal 
womb; what should be the sanctity and holiness of the 
soul who receives Him not once, or twice, but monthly and 
weekly? What graces should adorn that soul? What 
purity should shine forth from it. Should not that soul 
reflect the very beauty and purity of heaven since it be- 
comes the abode, the dwelling place of God Himself? 
Think of this, you who endeavor to approach Holy Com- 
munion frequently, and yet have the habit of defiling your 
souls with sins of impurity whether of thought or of ac- 
tion; think of this, you who may be going to confession 
and yet willfully concealing some mortal sin, that you 
may have had the misfortune to commit ; think of it, you 
who spend but little time or take but little trouble in ex- 
amining your conscience before going to the Sacrament of 
Penance ; think of it, you who kneel and receive that body 
upon your tongues, and then go away and in a few short 
hours make use of that sanctified member of your body in 
cursing or blaspheming, or in uttering words that bring 
a blush to the cheek ; think of it, one and all ; think of 
the great purity that should adorn the soul lest you go 
away with a condemnation of the Apostle upon you. 
" Prove yourself before receiving/' that is to say, confess 
your sins ; purify your souls in the Sacrament of Penance 
and then you will not be guilty of the body and blood of 
29 449 



XLIII. SERMON. 

our Lord. You have heard of the punishment that fell 
upon those who looked into the Ark; you have heard of 
Oza who was struck dead for touching it with profane 
hands; you have heard of Baltshazzar that mighty king 
who in the midst of the banquet, when heated with wine 
calls for the gold and silver vessels that his father had 
stolen from the temple of Jerusalem to be brought in, 
that his guests might drink from them. Suddenly the 
face of the great king grows pallid ; his eyes are fixed and 
there a mysterious hand, despite the revelry, is seen writ- 
ing his condemnation on the wall Mane, Thecel, Phares. 
Mane, God hath numbered thy kingdom and hath finished 
it; Thecel, Thou art weighed in the balance and found 
wanting ; Phares, thy kingdom is divided and given to the 
Medes and Persians. And that night saw the verification 
of the prophecy ; for on that night Baltshazzar was slain. 
If such was the punishment decreed against this king for 
desecrating the sacred vessels of the temple; if Oza was 
struck dead for touching the ark and if two of the men 
and fifty thousand of the common people were slain be- 
cause they looked into the ark through curiosity, in what 
manner will God punish the soul that is guilty of desecrat- 
ing not the vessels used in the sacrifice of Mass, but des- 
ecrating the sacred mysteries themselves ; " guilty " as 
St. Paul says " of the body and blood of Christ ; " guilty 
even as Judas was of betraying their Lord and Saviour 
into the hands of the enemies for they take Him who is 
■sanctity "and purity itself, and enclose Him within a breast 
that is defiled by sin. The punishment will be as He de- 
clared by the voice of the Apostle " He that eateth and 
drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh judgment to 
himself ; " that is to say, eateth and drinketh what will 
prove his own damnation. 

But our Blessed Lord in the Eucharist not only comes 
in His Wisdom and His Purity, He likewise comes in His 
Greatness and in His Majesty; comes as the Creator of 
the universe; conies as the King of kings, the Ruler of 

450 



WORTHY RECEPTION OF HOLY COMMUNION. 

rulers. What sentiment of the human heart will do 
honor to His infinite majesty. If to-morrow we were told 
that some great personage was to call upon us, to remain 
with us for some time ; how would we entertain our guest ? 
would we not honor his dignity by our respect and rever- 
ence ; would we not declare time and again that he honored 
us overmuch by visiting us, that we were sorry that our 
means would not permit us to greet him as his station de- 
manded ? Well, just so, must we act when we receive 
Holy Communion. Realize the fact that we are receiving 
the God of heaven, the Creator of all things ; we must bow 
down in humility before Him ; we must humble ourselves 
telling Him of our sorrow in not being able to entertain 
Him as God deserves to be entertained. Ah! behold the 
humility of St. John the Baptist! When our Blessed 
Lord comes to him to be baptized, confounded and aston- 
ished, he stays our Blessed Lord upon the banks of the 
Jordan and says to Him " I ought to be baptised by Thee 
and comest Thou to me/' and again speaking of Him he 
declares that he is not worthy to open the latchet of His 
shoe. Behold the humility of St. Elizabeth and consider 
how she thought herself honored. When our Blessed 
Lady went to visit her no sooner had the Blessed Virgin 
entered the door than she humbly saluted her saying 
" Whence is this to me that the Mother of my Lord should 
visit me." If such was the humility of St. John who the 
Scriptures tell us, was the greatest born among men; if 
such was the humility of St. Elizabeth when the Blessed 
Virgin visited her; what would have been their humility 
had they received our Blessed Lord Himself in this ador- 
able Sacrament of the altar; what should our humility 
be when we receive a visit from our Blessed Lord in this 
great Sacrament of His Love. Should we not repeat with 
the Priest at the altar when he turns around and faces the 
people, holding the sacred Host in his hand ; should we not 
repeat the words, " Domine non sum dignus " from the 
very bottom of our hearts. " O Lord I am not worthy/' 

451 



XL1II. SERMOSf. 

" I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under iny 
roof, &ay but the word and my soul shall be healed." I 
am not worthy, nor should I dare approach were it not my 
God, that thou hast commanded me to eat Thy body, and 
to drink Thy blood ; therefore do I approach Thee, as one 
acting from obedience, and from love; as one fully con- 
scious of my littleness, and of Thy greatness ; of my weak- 
ness and of Thy strength. I approach in order that I 
may acknowledge my dependence upon Thee, and receive 
strength from Thee to overcome the enemies of my salva- 
tion. 

But not only does He come in His wisdom and in His 
Purity and his Greatness, but our Blessed Lord comes to 
us, in His Goodness and in His Love. Imagine all that 
love has ever accomplished in this world; the sacrifices 
it may have made; the w r orks it may have performed. 
Take up the fictions of thepoets and the novelists; ad- 
mire all that this passion has impelled men to do from 
the beginning and all that the novelist and the poet have 
made it accomplish, in the field of fiction. The love of a 
husband for his wife, of a wife for her husband ; picture 
the love of a mother for her child, and the love of a child 
for its mother: imagine the love of the Angels and the 
Choirs of heaven for God ; descend to earth and realize if 
you can the love of the Saints for their Redeemer; the 
ardent love that inflamed the breast of a Francis Xavier 
to pierce into the wilds of Africa ; nay summon up the 
love of the Blessed Virgin for Our Dear Lord ; that love, 
that far surpassed all human love; that far surpassed the 
love of Angels and of men, and you have but a very in- 
significant idea of the love of Jesus Christ for us ; for love 
led Him to become man, a mystery that we could never 
understand, if w T e do not explain it by saying that He 
loved us with His love. Love led Him to remain with 
us for thirty-three years ; it led Him to die for us ; it led 
Him to multiply Himself on this world ; to place Himself 
in the hands of every priest, and upon every altar, whether 

452 



WORTHY RECEPTION OF HOLY COMMUNION. 

it be in the grand cathedral, surrounded by all the pomp 
of ceremony, or whether it be under the hedge, with a few 
followers, trembling lest they may be caught by their per- 
secutors, while assisting at the Sacrifice. It leads Him 
to unite Himself in a manner that has never been known 
before ; to become our very food ; to become our very 
drink; it is a love that the mind of man cannot conceive, 
that the w r ords of man cannot portray; for it is a love that 
is Divine, a love that is beyond us, above us ; and when 
we eulogize it we can but pronounce what God Himself 
has said of the highest type of love, " greater love than 
this no man hath; than that he lay down his life for his 
fellow man ; " and that, God did for us, when He died 
upon the cross. 

How are we to honor this attribute of Love in the Blessed 
Sacrament ? Will it not be by returning our love, by show- 
ing Him that we love Him ? This is the crown of all, The 
crown of Faith, of Purity and of Humility, is to love 
Jesus Christ in this adorable Sacrament. But how are 
we to know that we love Him ? How are we to love Him ? 
There is but one way, we must have the desire of being 
in His company; we must receive Him frequently into 
our hearts ; we will not, nor can we learn to love Him, by 
staying away; we must draw nigh, study His beauties, 
and His love for us; then unconsciously, our hearts will 
glow with love. This was the manner in which the saints 
learned to love our Blessed Lord in the Eucharist; they 
appreciated fully His great love for them, and the poorest 
return that they could then make, was their own love. If 
we were asked what it was that made St. Catherine of 
Genoa exclaim when the priest would administer Holy 
Communion to her " Quick, quick, place it in my heart 
since it is my food." We would answer that it was her 
great love for Him: If we w^ere asked why it was that 
St. Catherine of Genoa would faint away and seem upon 
the very point of death, when she* communicated, we 
would say, that it was the longing desire which she had to 

453 



XLIII. SERMON. 

be united to God ; and if we were asked what it was that 
led St. Wenceslaus the king of Bohemia, through the snow- 
covered streets at midnight barefooted, we would say that 
it was his love for Jesus Christ that taught him to wend 
his way to the church when it was deserted by others; 
and if we were asked, how did these servants of God ob- 
tain this wonderful love for Christ, we would say that they 
studied and appreciated the love of God for the creature; 
and saw that there could be but one way to repay that 
great love of God for mankind viz. by loving Him in re- 
turn. Approach then, this holy Sacrament frequently, 
do not wait for certain times and periods, the time of 
Easter and of Christmas : but come frequently, and out of 
love for our dear Lord, and when you do approach, come 
with that lively faith, which sees Jesus Christ beneath 
the sacramental veils ; come with that purity of heart, and 
freedom from sin, which makes the angels rejoice in 
heaven; come with that humility, which adorned the soul 
of the Blessed Virgin; come with that love, which shone 
forth in the lives of the great saints of God ; and then 
you will go away, repeating the words of the canticle of 
the Blessed Virgin, when she became the spouse of the 
Holy Ghost. " Magnificat anima mea Dominus" My 
soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced 
in God my Saviour." 



454 



XLIV. SERMON. 
THE PASSIONS. 



" The patient man is greater than the strong man, and he 
who rules his soul, greater than he who takes cities. 

Prov. xvi. 32. 



We have often heard, that he who conquers himself is 
the greatest of victors. But like so many other great 
truths that are expressed daily, we may have never asked 
its meaning, and we may have never understood how it is, 
that he who conquers self is really greater than he who 
takes cities. If we would appreciate the true worth of a 
conqueror w 7 e would consider his personal courage and 
bravery; we would view the enemy against whom his 
forces marched; and, finally, we would estimate the pos- 
sessions he had acquired by his legitimate expedition and 
in proportion as the enemy was powerful and the victory 
gained was valuable, w r e would grant him the title of a 
great and powerful conqueror. So, too, when we come to 
investigate the truth of the text that we have read for you, 
we must consider the energy of the man in conquering him- 
self, the enemy with which he has to cope, and the cause 
for which he fights. 

We are told in Holy Writ that the life of man is a war- 
fare upon the earth. We have then to know our enemy 
and we will find that the greatest enemy against which 
we have to contend are the passions. Here then is the 

455 



XLIV. SERMON. 

battle field. The cause for which we fight is the salvation 
of our immortal souls. All is staked upon the result; 
" For what will it profit you to gain the world and lose the 
soul ? " What would fortune avail us ? What would 
riches, what would possessions, what would the honor of 
a name, if we lose that for which we live, if we lose that 
for which we were created. Our enemy is one who will 
not compromise, our enemy is one w T ho cannot be got rid 
of, for the passions deeply rooted in our nature ; those pas- 
sionate emotions of the soul indifferent in themselves, and 
inclining either to good or evil, they must conquer or be 
conquered. What, then, are we to do with the passions ? 
Are we to seek to annihilate them, to crush them out of ex- 
istence ? If so, virtue will no longer merit a reward : for 
virtue would be then a victory without a battle. Stifle 
them and we no longer achieve anything that is great or 
good ; root them from the heart of man and his victories 
are not worthy of reward nor his actions deserving of pun- 
ishment. How then are we to subdue the enemies of our 
salvation ? How are we to make them our friends ? How- 
can we use them so as to attain salvation and become pos- 
sessors of a heavenly kingdom? 

First of all we are to subject them to the teaching of 
faith. And under this head we will see the wonderful 
works of the Saints in mastering them. And at the same 
time we will view the many evils that have befallen man- 
kind when the passions become dominant. And secondly, 
we will conclude that all the passions, without exception, 
must be. subjected to those same monarchs of man Faith 
and Reason under pain or danger of losing our immortal 
souls. The will, then, enlightened by Faith and Reason 
must be the mistress of the passions she must be the queen 
of the soul and regulate those movements of the heart ever 
turning them to good, and estranging them from evil. We 
must guard against the mistake that some christian souls 
fall into. There are times when the mind is agitated and 
troubled ; filled with phantasms that the soul recoils from. 

456 



THE PASSIONS. 

The heart filled with jealous feelings and dislikes; the 
will perfect master of itself, would banish those feelings, 
destroy those agitations and restore tranquility to the mind, 
it would not for the world give way deliberately to the 
enemies that are against it; and still there are persons 
who then think that their passions have overcome them ; 
that they have been sinning; that they have become objects 
of hatred in God's sight. We must ever remember that 
when sin is committed, that it is the will that commits it. 
The sin lies not in the thought or in the desire or in the 
inclination to do evil, but in the will's consenting to the 
evil, or in the will's not resenting that thought, desire or 
inclination. Here it is, within this kingdom, that the 
battle is lost or won. Here it is, that victories are gained 
or lost every moment fraught with more importance than 
the conquest of the greatest victors. Well indeed, did the 
saints understand this; they fully understood that once 
the will was convinced by Faith, and by Reason, that God 
must be obeyed, it must never yield, no matter what the 
power or passion that was brought to bear against it. Ex- 
amine the lives of those men, who lived voluntary exiles 
from the haunts of men; those thousands who went into 
the desert; among them were men who had tasted of all 
earth's pleasures ; among them were men who had indulged 
in all excesses ; over v/hom the passions had complete sway ; 
and months and years after they had quitted the scenes 
of pleasure and of sensual gratification the old passions 
and inclinations for forbidden joys, would well up within 
them; but still they were not shaken; as they had been 
slaves of their passions, so must now their passions be- 
come slaves of their will. Such was the beginning of 
monastic institutions and who could tell the benefits they 
conferred upon the human race: they were the civilizers 
in the hands of God, of nations ; virtues till then unknown 
to the w T orld began to flourish ; humility, or the proper ap- 
preciation of one's self in the light of heaven, took the 
place of pride; charity, or the proper respect that man 

457 



XL1V. SERMON. 

should entertain for man uprooted the pagan idea of self- 
ishness; and purity, that virtue that the world strove in 
vain to keep alive in the hearts of mankind, succeeded in 
destroying the shameful practice of the Saturnalia. Such 
were the virtues we find in those who obtained the mastery 
over their passions : tempests and storms might sweep over 
their souls, but their wills were strengthened by God's 
grace and remained firmly attached to virtue. Nor could 
they be subjected by any external power. Passion from 
within had assailed them but could not subdue them. The 
tortures that persecution could invent would be brought 
to bear upon them ; they were called upon to kneel and wor- 
ship idols ; they were asked to trample on the sign of sal- 
vation; to offer incense to the gods of the empire; they 
were told if they would not consent, persecution would in- 
vent tortures that would force them ; they would be thrown 
to wild beasts ; they would be placed upon the rack or wheel ; 
and despite those threats armies of young virgins, young 
men, and the aged bowed down with years, asked for the 
crown of martyrdom ; there was no terror that could appall 
them ; no punishment that could shake their will ; " We 
are christians, and must die, rather than betray our con- 
sciences ; true, in putting us to death we leave all that we 
possess in the world, we depart from friends and relatives, 
our property will be confiscated, but still these thoughts 
that would lead us to play the coward must be stifled; 
We sacrifice the spirit of avarice, that would lead us to live 
and enjoy what we possess ; we sacrifice the spirit of self, 
that tells us to consent to the tempter and receive the favors 
of the emperor ; we sacrifice the spirit of pride, that asks 
us to partake of worldly honors, and of worldly favor as 
long as we may; and we sacrifice life itself, rather than 
allow our wills to betray our consciences ; for what would 
all these profit us if we lose our immortal soul." 

But what did their deaths avail the world ? By that 
sacrifice of self they conquered the world; each life that 
was taken was another proof of the Divinity of Christ 

458 



THE PASSIONS. 

and of His holy religion ; and when men were to ask hun- 
dreds of years after, for a proof of the Divinity of Christ, 
they would be told of those who shed their blood in tes- 
timony of that truth : they gave to the world the example 
of men who were truly courageous ; of men, who when 
their wills were fully convinced of the manner in which 
they should serve Almighty God would sacrifice every 
interest and passion rather than give up their belief. 

Take up the life of a Francis Xavier and who could 
estimate the amount of good performed by that saint ; yet 
see him as a young man ; he is ambitious and cares for 
nothing but worldly science ; he obtains a professorship of 
Philosophy in Paris, and filled with pride and vain glory, 
he cares for nothing but fame ; he would be known to the 
world as a great scholar ; crowds of young men press about 
his chair, listen to his learned lectures and applaud him 
for his success ; here it was that St. Ignatius met him ; he 
saw the brilliancy of the young man, listened to his dis- 
courses, admired his worth and he thought within himself, 
could this young man be brought to labor for the glory of 
God, instead of his own glory, how much good he might 
accomplish. He assailed him with that one text of Sacred 
Writ " What good will it profit a man to gain the whole 
world and lose his own soul." At first the young Xavier 
began to ridicule Ignatius, and told him that the mean- 
ness and poverty he lived in, betokened a lowness of soul 
that was unworthy of a man. But St. Ignatius would re- 
peat his text and Xavier knowing that he was born of 
wealthy parents, began to see the sincerity of Ignatius. 
He thought of his words, he listened to some of his dis- 
courses and soon the light of grace, began to dawn in his 
soul. There was a struggle, but finally he conquered ; and 
placing himself under the wise counsel of Ignatius, he 
won the victory over self ; he learned that his predominant 
passion was vain glory ; he began to practice the virtue of 
humility, by ascribing all that he possessed to God and 
henceforth, that passion for vain glory, became a passion 

459 



XLIV. SERMON. 

in Xavier for the glory of God ; so that he is now known to 
the world, as St. Francis Xavier the Apostle of the Indies, 
and though he died at the age of forty-six history tells us 
that he gained over no less than seven hundred thousand 
converts to the faith. 

So too, if we take up other lives, we shall find that the 
whole aim of the saints, was to subject their passions to 
faith and reason ; they would not destroy them, but they 
would subdue them ; thus Francis of Sales from being the 
most irascible would become the mildest and meekest of 
men ; and yet, the most firm ; thus too, St. Teresa, the care- 
less and undevout young girl, would be known to the world 
for her fervor. Thus, are we of our day especially taught 
a great lesson, and one that we should treasure up in our 
hearts. The excuse of to-day is that we cannot give up 
our passions, and habits, that we cannot subdue them. 
If so, how is it that the saints could overcome their inclina- 
tions ; were they not spirit and matter as we are ? Were 
they not thrown in the same occasions of sin that we are ? 
Had they other means than we have ? Were they not mem- 
bers of the same church ? Did they not partake of the 
same sacraments ? O my friends, for them God did no 
more than for us ; but the real reason, why we do not give 
up this or that particular vice is, that we do not convince 
ourselves of the folly of serving our passions and the 
world and hence unmerciful masters as they are, they make 
us their slaves. 

But let us glance at the evils that fall upon the human 
race, when the passions become dominant in man ; we have 
seen the wonderful effects that the saints wrought in con- 
quering these emotions of the soul, when inclining to evil. 
Here the passions are to be considered as not controlled; 
like elements of fire and water, they are useful if properly 
governed, but destructive, if not under a master's hand, 
and we may look for terrible results. Let us then take 
pride and sensuality, the two great passions of the human 
soul, to establish the interminable effects that follow 

460 



THE PASSIONS. 

when the passions of man are not duly restrained. Pride, 
why, it was the first of sins ; it drove our first parents 
from Eden, and brought all the ills that human flesh is 
heir to upon mankind. The first murder, that of Abel 
by his brother Cain, how was it brought about ? By 
the sin of pride. The first family of the human race 
must count a fratricide, and his race is to be henceforth 
cursed. Again examine this passion, as the cause of 
nations lapsing into error and idolatry. They must needs 
raise a tow^er that will touch the heavens ; but in their 
pride their language is confounded, and we have the dis- 
persion of peoples. Traditions are lost, and the world 
witnesses nations that are idolatrous. Again, what has 
been the cause of the opposition to Christ's church 
throughout the world for centuries ? The passion of 
pride would not give way to authority, and hence we 
have not only the oppositions of nations to Christ's church, 
but a defection from the faith. Why is it that Eussia 
is Schismatic ? Why is England to-day Protestant Eng- 
land ? Why was it that a Becket and a More were 
executed? Because they would not recognize the supre- 
macy of the king in spirituals, and hence England be- 
comes Protestant. Why is it that the heads of nations 
to-day, are set against the vicar of Christ upon earth ? 
It is the old ungovernable passion of pride, that will not 
down, that will not submit to Christ's vicar no more 
than it did to God himself in heaven, when Lucifer ut- 
tered for the first time, the "non serviam," " I will not 
serve ' ' which has ever since been repeated by his agents. 
Consider that other passion, which has brought such 
terrible destruction, time and time again, upon the human 
family. It is a passion that reduces man lower than the 
beasts of the field, and from the very creation of the 
world, men seem to have made themselves its voluntary 
slaves. Open the Old Testament, and you will read in 
the sixth chapter of the first book, that of Genesis, that 
God was sorry that He had made man, "It repented 

461 



XLIV. SERMON. ] 

Him that He had made man upon the earth, and being 
touched inwardly with sorrow of heart, He said ; I will 
destroy man whom I have created from the face of the 
earth, from man even to beasts ; from the creeping thing 
even to the fowls of the air ; for it repenteth me that I 
have made them." Mark those last words, " God re- 
pented that He had made man. ' ' Why ? For ' ' all flesh 
had corrupted its way upon the earth. ' ' Is not this re- 
markable ? God is not said to have repented when Lucifer 
fell, and carried with him a third of the heavenly spirits. 
Neither is He said to have repented when man fell, and by 
his fall entailed misery upon the whole human race, nor 
did He repent when Cain killed Abel, but only when all 
flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth, when man 
was given up to his lusts, and wallowed in the beastly 
passion of sensuality, then it was that God repented and 
destroyed the human race by the deluge. Again read in 
that same book of the destruction of Sodom and Gor- 
morrah. Inquire into the reason for such punishment 
and you will be told that it was a punishment decreed by 
Almighty God on account of the sins that were com- 
mitted there. Eead the history of that great king of 
the Israelites, David, and you will find that after he 
gives way to the passion of impurity, he becomes a mur- 
derer. Eead the history of Solomon, the wisest of Sov- 
ereigns; one to whom God had given the gift of wisdom 
as a special favor, blinded by passion he sins, and hard 
upon his crime follows the sin of idolatry. He who knew 
more of God than other men, kneels and worships idols. 

But to come nearer to our own day. What was the 
cause of the great reformation? If you take up the lives 
of the first reformers and read them, you will have to as- 
cribe sensuality after pride, as one of the causes of that 
secession from the church in the sixteenth century. This 
might well be developed, and particulars entered into. We 
might speak of Henry the VIII, of Luther and of others. 
►But we may content ourselves with one solitary example. 

462 



THE PASSIONS. 

St. Francis de Sales meets one of the reformers ; they dis- 
cuss the teachings of the Church, all difficulties were satis- 
factorily explained to the reformer by St. Francis. He 
assents to all that the saint said: but still there was one 
great difficulty that kept him from the Church ; one great 
difficulty that he could not overcome ; there was a woman 
for whom he had conceived an ungovernable passion, and 
her, he could not leave. We are then to bring our pas- 
sions under the dominion of the teachings of Faith and 
Reason; nor will it do to subject one passion; no, we must 
subdue them all without exception ; for as the practice of 
one virtue will sanctify and save us, so will subjection to 
one passion enslave and damn us. We have a notable ex- 
ample of this in Judas one of the disciples. You have 
heard of that apostle ; he was one of the chosen twelve, one 
selected from the many millions that then peopled the 
world to preach the doctrine of Christ ; to all appearance 
he was as good and as holy as any of the apostles ; his con- 
duct was beyond reproach ; nay more it seemed to be above 
suspicion ; for when seated at the last supper with our 
Blessed Lord, and when the twelve were told^ that there 
was one in their midst who would betray Him, it is not 
said that any of them even suspected that Judas would 
be the guilty one. And yet what was the fate of that dis- 
ciple, even after he had been nourished with that first 
Communion, that was administered upon the world ? He 
rises from the table, he knows that there are enemies han- 
kering after the blood of his Master; and seeking to ap- 
prehend him. The spirit of avarice shows him silver, tells 
him of money that he might make, if he would but be the 
betrayer of our Divine Lord; and he immediately goes 
and for thirty pieces of silver he gives up that good kind 
blaster into the hands of his enemies ; and then goes and 
hangs himself; the passion of Avarice is his ruin; the 
greed for money, that vice alone condemns him. 

Should we not learn from the life of the apostle the 
danger of consenting to anv one passion ; particularly we 

463 



XLIV. SERMON. 

who are Catholics, we who in a special manner like Judas 
have been chosen, members of the one saving Church, out 
of whose Communion there is no salvation ; we, who be- 
cause we belong to that Church imagine perhaps that we 
have a sure guarantee of our salvation ; should we not learn 
to restrain and subject those enemies, the passions. We 
are not closer to our Divine Lord than Judas, we have no 
more powerful means than Judas, and yet he fell, fell be- 
cause he listened to the spirit of avarice, that whispered 
in his soul, that he should lay up riches to himself in the 
world. Like him there may be some among us who feel 
that we are the slave to some passion, who know and have 
experienced for years, that we are the victims of some un- 
ruly vice; it may be that of avarice, intemperance, or 
pride; we feel ourselves conquered as it were, perfectly 
powerless when the object of our passion comes before us. 
Well for us is there no hope, no consolation to be offered ? 
Most certainly. 

Within that same college of the apostles, there was an- 
other disciple dear to our Blessed Lord ; Peter, who was 
to be their head and prince, he fell through human respect, 
denied his Master, swore that he knew not the man ; but 
unlike Judas he repented, he acknowledged his fault and 
was forgiven. Here is the model we must imitate. We 
have fallen, but like Peter we must repent, we must arise 
as Peter and humbly declare our fault, and then like Peter 
resolve never more to play the coward ; nay more, that we 
would rather die, than be the slaves of this or that par- 
ticular vice. Our will then, is the first power that we must 
bring to bear upon our passions; it is all powerful; it is 
a citadel that cannot be taken, no matter what power is 
brought to bear against it. It can be firm as we have seen, 
from the lives of these holy fathers of the desert, it can 
resist the violence of persecution and the sword as we have 
seen from the lives of the martyrs ; still more ; hell itself, 
with its legions of impious spirits and with its million 
suggestions to evil, cannot move it aud if such be tke 

464 



THE PASSIONS. 

natural strength with which it is endowed; and it is true, 
otherwise our will would not be free will, what will we 
say of it when strengthened by prayer; and this is the 
second power that we have to bring against those passions 
that w y ould destroy us. 

Our Lord Himself has promised to hear our prayer. 
u Ask of the Father anything in my name and it will be 
given." Ask for anything that will help you to save your 
souls, for I have come upon earth to save you. Ask it in 
my name of the Father and it will be given you. Couple 
the natural power of the will that we have just described, 
with the power of God's grace obtained by prayer, and 
where is the passion that can affect it. Ask Him to change 
by his grace their natural bent. He created us, fashioned 
our nature, and as He fashioned it, so can He change it 
by the power of His grace, and incline it ahvays to good, 
provided that we ask His help, and correspond with His 
assistance. Contending in this manner, by our strength 
of will aided by God's own strength, we will subdue our 
passions and we will achieve a victory greater than that 
won by worldly conquerors, for we will frustrate the most 
powerful of enemies, and gain as our recompense, a king- 
dom destined to remain as long as God is God. 



465 



WAY 7 * Q ™ 



